


Stone in Love

by emmadilla



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Knotting, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Soulmates, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-17 00:39:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 43,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14176803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmadilla/pseuds/emmadilla
Summary: Can't help myself, I'm fallin'/Stone in love ...Dean and Cas have been a mated Alpha/Beta pair for years. While Alpha Sam had found a complete set in Beta Gabriel and Omega Eileen, Dean had never found an Omega that appealed to him. Until, that is, he stops in for dinner at a gimmicky restaurant and just so happens to meet and inadvertently soulmate bond with an Omega named Tara. Their worlds are turned upside down, and they both have to come to terms with this change and with each other.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Running](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10885746) by [JayceCarter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayceCarter/pseuds/JayceCarter). 



> So, welcome to my Camp Nano project! Also my first contribution to the Alpha/Beta/Omega tag. I hope you guys enjoy. :)

 

 

\------

 

 

_Those summer nights are callin’/Stone in love/Can’t help myself I’m fallin’/Stone in love …_

 

Those lyrics helped drag me out of a rather restful sleep, one that I would have rather stayed in, but I couldn’t ignore it. As the classic rock band kept on singing about dusty roads and a blue jean girl, I tried to reach over to turn off the radio alarm, but my arm had fallen asleep and just flopped uselessly. I sighed and just laid there a moment longer, enjoying the song anyway as I shook life back into my limb. Once it had been sufficiently woken, enough so that I could at least flex my fingers and mostly feel it, I pulled myself out of bed and ambled toward the bathroom, yawning. I wouldn’t normally have gotten up as early as I was, as I worked late at a bar, but today was dread washing day, and considering it was the middle of winter I wanted to give them as much time as possible to dry before I left for work. First, though, as I passed by my thermostat, I turned it up a few degrees, just enough so that the heat kicked on before I retreated into the bathroom. I didn’t keep it completely frigid, but I did have it on the low side to help with my bills, especially at night when I slept. I preferred the comforting feel of a pile of blankets anyway, so why waste the heat?

 

The water took a little while to heat up, and I rubbed my arms as I bounced from foot to foot on the cold tile floor, waiting somewhat impatiently. My last heat had kicked in unexpectedly and I had pretty much ruined my last rug and hadn’t had the chance to get another one yet. I usually waited for my off days to shop, since I worked a late shift, but I’d been taking some extra days lately to make up for missing during my heat. Tonight was one of those extra days, but after this week I would go back to my typical schedule. At least, until the next month and a half when my heat would kick in again and necessitate me staying home. So I would enjoy the normalcy while I could.

 

When the water was finally warm, I stepped in and sighed with relief as I was pelted with warmth. The water pressure was actually decent, which was good because it would have been a bitch to wash and fully rinse my dreads with poor water pressure. I really didn’t spend any longer than most people did washing their hair normally, it was just a little different, and not done as often. I’d had them for almost four years now, and I loved the stage that they were at. I was a little bit of an unusual sight in Menomonie, Wisconsin, with facial piercings and platinum blond dreads, but I’d grown up here and so the locals didn’t pay me any mind, not any more. Hell, I used to dye my hair all kinds of crazy colours as a teen. If anything my appearance was toned down now. Nowadays, if I got weird looks, it was more because I was an unmated Omega in her early thirties.

 

Not that nobody had tried, of course, I just wasn’t interested in most, _especially_ if that person was an Alpha. Betas, I had tolerated enough to have a few flings with, but Alphas scared the ever living shit out of me. I had seen, plainer than ever, what could happen if you were mated and bonded to a less than savoury Alpha. I shuddered as I rinsed my hair, my heart hurting for my poor sister. Devin had seemed so nice, so sweet when they met, and the fact that they’d had a soulmate bond just convinced her that he was perfect, so she’d married him without any hesitation. Unfortunately, he was cruel and manipulative, and had all but pushed almost everyone out of her life, save for me and our parents. He’d purposefully withhold his touch from her, causing her physical pain from their soulmate bond. He didn’t often physically abuse her, as he said the physical pain a bonded Omega experienced when their Alpha’s touch was withheld was more than he could inflict, but he still liked a punching bag now and then. He’d even take her against her will, if he wanted, though he’d made her keep up her birth control because he didn’t want any kids. Ever. Poor Ellen, all she’d wanted was this nice, fairytale family, all-American, apple pie, white picket fence, two and a half kids … but instead she was stuck with an abusive monster. I supported her, was her rock to lean on as much as I could, but there were some aches even I couldn’t soothe. Worse yet, if she tried to press charges and they stuck, he would be permanently removed from her and put in prison, and she would suffer indefinitely without her soulmate’s touch. Talk about a damned if you do, damned if you don’t kind of situation.

 

That was why I didn’t trust Alphas. It was too much of a risk. I’d rather be an unmated Omega forever than be stuck in a nightmare.

 

Shutting off the water, I squeezed and rung out my dreads before I grabbed my microfiber towel and wrapped it around them before twisting it around and throwing it up, letting my dreads stay wrapped up for a few minutes so the towel could absorb as much moisture as it could before I took it down and let them air dry, which I did after I trekked back to my room and pulled on my old standby grey sweats and a light purple thermal shirt. I combined my fingers through the roots, to make sure none of them were growing together, but I only found one that I needed to make sure was separated. Probably because I wore my hair down a lot in the winter, it helped. In the summer, when I pulled it up, I had to tend to my roots more often and separate them. My scalp hated it, tingling and hurting every time, but it was necessary if I didn’t want my dreads to turn into a mess. I took pride in how well they were groomed, I wasn’t about to let them fall into disarray simply because it was going to hurt a little.

 

Once I was dressed and my dreads were separated and out in the open to dry, I slipped on my comfy slippers and made my way to my kitchen. Coffee was definitely on the menu for this morning, and I set up a pot to brew while I rummaged for something to actually eat. My refrigerator supplies were getting low - I really needed to stock up the next day I had off - but there was enough milk to pour a little in my coffee and also have a bowl of cereal, so I figured why cook if I didn’t have to. I did all the time at work, and while I enjoyed it, it was a little tiring to do it all the time at home, too. So I settled into my little loveseat, my steaming mug on the coffee table in front of me and my bowl cradled in my hand as my TV came to life. Daytime TV wasn’t very exciting most of the time, but there was always The Price is Right, so I settled in as I dug into my berries and yogurt Special K. It could have always been worse.

 

The rest of the day passed pretty easily and quickly, as I forced myself to adult and do a few loads of laundry and clean and pay some bills that were coming close to being due. I figured might as well take advantage of the extra time I had since I’d gotten up early, but by late afternoon I had to start getting ready for work. Standard black t-shirt that I wore in the kitchen, a black flannel for the warmth and just in case I needed to deliver some food out front, and a pair of jeans that accommodated my comfortable pair of cowboy boots. Sure, cowboy boots were only required for the serving staff, but they were awfully comfortable and otherwise went to waste considering how few times I had to cover for a waitress. My cowboy hat, which was big enough to fit around my dreads, perpetually hung up in the back of Snakey Jake’s, just in that off chance I had to make an appearance up front, but otherwise it just sat there.

 

Snakey Jake’s was a small time, local establishment. Just above a dive bar that used to have solely a western theme, the new owner had incorporated some old wrestling memorabilia into the place, even renaming the place after her favourite wrestler, Jake the Snake Roberts. It had pretty standard bar fare, like burgers and nachos and hot sandwiches, along with plenty of finger foods and appetizers like wings and fries and mozzarella sticks and the like. It was technical, gourmet cooking by any means, but it was easy and I liked the people I worked with. I may not have made that much money, but hell, a fun work environment was more than what some people had, so I counted myself lucky. It’s not like I really needed a bunch of money anyway, I only had myself to worry about. My truck had been paid off a long time ago, my rent for a one-bedroom place was pretty reasonable, and I did my best to cushion my other bills as much as possible, like not running my heat so high in the winter. I turned it back down as I pulled on my coat and went to leave, tugging my scarf around my neck and pulling on my gloves before I exited and locked my apartment. Thankfully, my dreads were fully dry now, so I didn’t have to worry about a damp head as I drove into work.

 

I hung my coat and my flannel up on a hook before I grabbed an apron and walked back into the kitchen, greeting the cooks that were on duty. Pam and Dominic usually prepped and took care of the early crowd and then Luke and I would alternate helping during rush before Freddy came in to help me during the later hours. Luke was a part-timer, just popping in here and there, but he was a hard worker and a great help and was gunning for more hours so he could quit his other part-time job at CVS. Dom waved at me with his spatula as Pam looked up and smiled, wiping some sweat off of her forehead with the back of her forearm before she went back to tending to the burgers in front of her. With no time to waste, I looked over the orders waiting and dropped in some fries and wings into separate fryers before I started sending a load of dishes through the dishwasher. We usually had someone to do that for us, but our previous dishwasher had suddenly quit a few days before and so until a new one could be hired, we made it work. It wasn’t like it was hard, but it was a helluva lot easier to not have to worry about dishes while one was cooking.

 

A couple of hours later, Pam and Dom were replaced by Freddy and I at the grill, and we ran the kitchen as efficiently as we could, trading off at the dishwasher. Thankfully, not too long after, Luke showed up, saying Ceasare - one of the managers - had called him to come in and help with it. It may have just been basic dishwashing work, and some cooks might have turned their nose up at it, but Luke was eager to prove himself and get as many hours as he could, so he’d jumped at the chance. It definitely did make it a lot easier for everyone, and so we settled into a comfortable, predictable rhythm, laughing and joking around as we cooked and plated. Maybe it was a cliche, but the people at Snakey Jake’s felt like family, from the cooks that worked in the back, to the bartenders up front, to the waitresses that ran in between. Miranda Hoff, the new owner, had really done her best to cultivate the place into not only a great place to go and hang out at, but a great place to work at as well. And, surprisingly, for being an Alpha, she was especially accommodating and understanding of Omegas and our needs, especially when we went into heat. Some businesses still refused to hire us because they didn’t want to have to deal with the time we would inevitably have to take off, but Miranda always made sure to have enough people on staff to take care of any coverage issues.

 

So, much later in the night, when Piper suddenly had to go home as her heat had kicked in earlier than she’d anticipated, Miranda waved her off and sent the waitress home immediately, phoning in Jazz to let her know she was needed. The big rush was over with, thankfully, and Piper had really only had one table to worry about, and she’d already not only delivered their food but their check as well and they were just waiting for someone to pick up their bill and credit card and run it. “I got it!” I called out, taking off my apron and pulling on my flannel and cowboy hat, tying the ends of the flannel around my waist so I wouldn’t have to button it up. I made my way out to the front, the music from the old vinyl jukebox making a comfortable atmosphere as the patrons ate and drank. Table #5 was really a booth, situated near the back of the place, opposite the bar. I honed in on it with practiced ease, side-stepping more inebriated patrons almost like I was dancing. I didn’t know how the waitresses were able to do this their whole shift, but more power to them. I much preferred to stay in the back for the most part. But, if called upon, I could do this, and I plastered a friendly smile on my face as I walked up to the three men sitting there, reaching for the bill and the credit card sitting there as I asked, “Everything good tonight?”

 

“Yes, thank you, it was excellent,” one of them replied, automatically going to move the bill and card closer to me so I could grab it. In that moment, our fingers brushed against each other, and it felt like electricity shot through my body before concentrating in my brain. We both hissed, both feeling it as it took over us for a moment, almost bringing me to my knees as it felt like my head was being split open. I leaned against the table for a moment, but as soon as I regained control of myself, my head shot up and met the greenest eyes I think I’d ever seen. Had I … had we just had a soulmate bond? My heart pounded as I sniffed instinctively and then a cold fear took over me as his scent filled my nostrils. _Alpha. Fuck._


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With where I was going with this chapter, it ended up being a lot longer than I'd planned, so I'm splitting it into two parts and posting them as extra chapters. Oh well, that's how it goes!

Confusion was the only thing that trickled over from his end of the bond, but I shoved it away, thinning our connection as much as possible before I grabbed the check and his card and booked it back to the bar area, bumping into a few patrons in my haste. I left it with Jasper to ring up while I hightailed it to the back, stammering to Miranda that I needed to leave, _now_.

 

She looked up, surprised to hear me say I needed to leave early. I only had a couple of hours left on my shift, but still, I was always good for staying my whole shift. But the blond woman with a big bouffant immediately knew something was up, with the way my eyes were darting around and my hands were shaking. “Why? What’s wrong?” she asked, more concerned for me than she was concerned that the kitchen might be short handed for a little while.

 

I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly dry. Could I tell her? Could I tell her that I had just bonded with someone? That was usually a cause for celebration, as soulmate bonds didn’t happen all the time these days, but this was something I had been dreading. I wasn’t against the whole thing, necessarily, just not with an _Alpha_. A Beta, sure, fine. I’d even take another Omega, although two Omegas bonding was pretty rare. But this … this was my worst nightmare. Already I was starting to feel a little itchy and hot, the effects of the bond settling and not being near … _him._ I couldn’t even bring myself to think of him as my mate, even though that’s exactly what he was. Right now, I just wanted to get out of there and go home, hole up in my apartment, and hope it would all go away. Facing down Miranda, I shook my head. “I-I’ll call you later, I just … I need to leave. I’m sorry.” Leaving it at that, I half jogged back to the kitchen, not even taking off my hat as I pulled on my coat and booked it out the back door, hoping against hope that I wasn’t going to be followed.

 

Heh, I should have known better.

 

On the way to my truck, I pulled my keys out of my jacket pocket so I could get in immediately, but between my haste and my still-shaking hands, I dropped them in the few inches of freshly fallen snow. Cursing under my breath, I scanned the immediate area to see where they landed, their location semi-hidden under the fluffy snow. It only took a few extra seconds before I noticed them and bent over to scoop them, but by then it was too late as I heard footsteps crunching in the snow. My stomach twisted as I wondered if I should even look up or just keep going, but my instincts chose for me as my head jerked upward when I could see feet in my periphery.

 

To my surprise, it wasn’t the green eyed man I’d just bonded with. Instead, it was one of the men who had been sitting with him. He looked even taller and intimidating than when he’d been sitting in the booth, but an interesting scent wafted across to me, and that alone made me pause. _Beta_. Of course, if he was running with the Alpha I’d bonded to, I wasn’t sure how much I could trust him, but something about his presence was soothing and comforting as I dared to meet his bright blue eyes, just a few shades darker than my own. He held his hands up in front of him, keeping a decent enough distance as he said, “My name is Castiel.”

 

My eyebrow involuntarily quirked at the odd name. “That’s a bit of a mouthful, isn’t it?” _Really, Tara,_ that’s _the first thing you can think of to say? For fuck’s sake._

 

One side of his lips quirked up ever so slightly in a grin. “Well, Dean calls me Cas.”

 

_Dean._ “Is that … is he …”

 

“My alpha, yes. The one you bonded to.”

 

I bit my lip as the ice cold feelers of fear started spreading in my gut. Was this Cas going to force me to go with them? I unconsciously took a step back. To his credit, the man in front of me didn’t budge, just continued to stand where he was, his hands still out, palms forward. “So did he send you to fetch me, then?” I asked, putting a little more malice in that statement than I’d originally meant.

 

To his credit, he didn’t even flinch and took it in stride. “No, he didn’t. He wanted to come find you himself, but from your reaction, I thought it best if I came, instead.”

 

I let out a breath that was almost half a chuckle, a white cloud emanating from my mouth in the chilled air. “So he does want me to come with him, then.”

 

“Yes, but not for the reason you think.”

 

I raised my eyebrows and licked my lips. _Well this oughta be good._ “Oh really? And what _reason_ would that be, then?”

 

He took a deep breath, as if he was carefully considering his next words, before he continued. “The line of work we’re involved in, it’s … it’s very dangerous.”

 

“What is it you do?”

 

He paused a moment before he replied, “I can’t tell you. Not right now, at least. I hope you’ll trust me when I tell you that if our enemies were to find out about you, they wouldn’t hesitate to hurt or kill you.”

 

I shivered, and not from the cold. “So what are you guys, like, CIA or something?” I asked, my voice low.

 

“No, but … similar, I suppose you could say. Danger-wise, at least, yes. Look,” he took one, small step toward me, but I didn’t move back again, so he took another, “I know this is sudden, and I know you aren’t really on board for this. Believe me neither I nor Dean would have put you in this position if we could have helped it. But, the fact of the matter is, it did happen, and now our lives will spill over into yours whether we want it to or not. We simply cannot leave you here, it is far too dangerous for you.” He took one more step, so that he was standing right in front of me, well within reaching distance, but he still made no move to grab me. I was shaking, though not from the cold, and not entirely from the shock of this revelation. It was starting to get to me, the urge, the need to feel skin against my own, to touch the Alpha that had bonded to me. The longer I went without it, the more painful it would get until I was physically debilitated from the lack of contact. Running was useless, I knew that, but the denial had been strong. Even now I wanted to hesitate, to protest, even if I knew it was ultimately useless. A single tear traced down my cheek, and Castiel’s face softened. He offered his bare hand to me as he asked, “What’s your name?”

 

I looked at his hand for a moment before I reached for it. While the touch of a bonded Beta wasn’t the same, wouldn’t provide the same relief, it would help. Devin had outright refused to let anyone else into his and Ellen’s relationship, because then Ellen would have an advocate, someone to help her, to ease the pain he left in his wake when he refused to let her touch him. But here … here I had a built in Beta to the relationship already. Maybe … maybe that was a good thing? A good sign? Betas were supposed to be the most even-keel, the ones who attended to the needs of both the Alpha and the Omega. While not everyone had multiple partners, the ones that did seemed … fulfilled. Happy. Could I really have that, even with an Alpha in the mix? While it didn’t seem I had a choice, I was more willing to try knowing I had a Beta to fall back on. A wave of physical relief washed over me as our fingers touched, and my eyes closed involuntarily as I whispered, “Tara.”

 

“Tara,” he repeated, and I opened my eyes to see he hadn’t moved an inch. He waited for me to move at a pace that was comfortable, and I was incredibly grateful. “I’m sorry that this is so sudden, but I promise you, we will protect you and keep you safe.”

 

I nodded, blinking away more tears, the ache still there, still present, simply dulled for the time being. Manageable. Maybe, with a bonded Beta, this really could work out. I still didn’t quite know what to make of it, what to feel about it, or anything like that. But Castiel, the Beta that he was, was offering to ease the transition for me. It was far more than I could have ever hoped for with a soulmate bond. Perhaps it was the shock of the whole situation, but when Cas asked me something, I had to ask him to repeat it. “I’m sorry, what?”

 

“Where do you live?”

 

“Um, an apartment, about ten minutes away. Why?”

 

He smirked, a very small one, as he calmly replied, “Just because we can’t leave you here, it doesn’t mean we’re going to make you leave with just the clothes on your back.”

 

Understanding now, I replied, “Right, yeah, okay. Um, hand me your phone.” He quirked his eyebrow questioningly, but fished it out of his pocket nonetheless, handing it over without question. I pulled up a new text message and put my phone number in the recipient before I typed out my address in the message box. That way, he had both at the ready. If they really did work for some shady, higher-up organization, then they could probably find me regardless. Resistance was useless now. Handing it back to him, I told him, “That’s my number, and my address. I’ll meet you there.”

 

“I think Dean and I would …”

 

“Please, Castiel,” I begged, interrupting him before he could finish his thought. “I won’t run, I promise, I just … I need a few minutes to myself, okay?” I looked around, seeing Dean and the third man that had been sitting with emerge from the restaurant. “You asked me to trust you, right? I need you to trust me, too.”

 

He nodded, conceding the point as the other two men drew near. “Very well, then. We’ll meet you there.”

 

I ducked away from them and headed toward my truck, letting Cas explain what was happening. As for me … I really did need a moment to myself. But I wasn’t going to get that just yet.

 

As soon as I got in the truck and started up the engine, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed the first person I really needed to talk to. My dad. While I did love my mother and was friendly with her, for the most part, my dad is who I was really close to. Maybe it was because he was an Omega, too, so he understood how I felt a lot more than my mother, who was an Alpha, but I always knew I could talk to him about anything. And right now, I really needed him. The line rang three times as I pulled out of the parking lot before he answered, and I could already hear the smile in his voice as he said, “Hey, Tara Bear.”

 

I rolled my eyes. Yes, even in my early thirties, my dad still used my childhood nickname. “Hey Dad, um … I need to tell you something.”

 

“Sure, sweetie, what is it?”

 

“I, um … I kinda bonded to someone tonight.”

 

“Really? That’s wonderful!”

 

I sighed a little. Figured my dad would be excited that his only single daughter was finally going to be getting into a relationship. “Dad, it’s with an Alpha.”

 

He was quiet for a minute. As I’d promised Ellen, I hadn’t told my parents everything that Devin did to her, but they did know that she’d become withdrawn and they were taking a wait and see approach. For now, all they knew for sure was that I distrusted most Alphas, especially ones I didn’t know. He carefully weighted what he said next.”Look, I know Alphas can be intimidating. I still remember the first time I met your mother and it was … well, if you had told me then that we would have gotten married, settled down, had kids, and had a great life together, I would have said that you were crazy. She was young and brash and bossy and oh so certain of everything. But … even without a soulmate bond between us, we were still drawn together. And, over time, she evened out. Calmed down. And we’ve been happy ever since. She’s still a little on the high-strung side, but …” he chuckled, “… I wouldn’t trade Sue for the world.”

 

Hearing him talk about my mother with such glowing warmth did make me feel hopeful. Hopeful that this would all work out somehow. “I know. I just … I don’t really know anything about him, or his Beta, and I’m going to have to leave with him.”

 

“Why move that fast?”

 

“Their job … they said it’s dangerous. He wouldn’t say what it is exactly, but from what I got, from the gist of it, I would be in danger if I stayed here.”

 

The line was silent for several long moments, and I was almost afraid I’d lost the connection when I heard him finally ask, “You think that’s true? You think you would be in danger if you didn’t leave?”

 

I bit my lip. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to make of Dean or Cas or the whole situation. But the earnestness in Cas’ eyes made me want to believe him. The way he didn’t just grab me and force me to come with them, how they wanted me to grab my things before we left, how Cas trusted me to leave on my own … “Yeah,” I finally replied, softly, as I pulled into the parking lot of my apartment complex. “Yeah, I do.” I turned off the engine and sat there a moment, tears gathering in my eyes. “I just … it’s all so sudden, I don’t …”

 

“Tara, listen to me, it’s going to be alright, okay? If you need to leave, then you leave. Do what you need to do. No matter what, your mother and I will always love you and support you.” He paused a moment before he asked, “Are you at your apartment?”

 

“Yeah, I just pulled up.”

 

“I’ll be there in about five minutes, okay? I’ll help you pack and what you don’t take, I can bring back here for storage and you can either come back for it or I’ll send it to you.”

 

“O-okay. I’ll see you then.”

 

“Alright. Love you, Tara Bear.”

 

I smiled at the old sentiment. “I love you, too, Dad.” Hanging up the phone, I rested my forehead against the top of the steering wheel for a moment, just trying to absorb the fact that my life was about to completely change. A few deep breaths later and I was up and out of the truck and unlocking my apartment, turning on the lights as I moved through the place. _Might as well get this over with._


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a little bit shorter than the others, but I suppose that's how it had to go, the way I had to split up the last chapter, because it definitely would have dragged on a little too long. I don't guess y'all will be too upset with me, huh? :P

I was glad I had forced myself to properly adult earlier, because that meant that I had a bunch of clean clothes ready to go. I stopped at my hall closet to grab a backpack and a couple of duffel bags when I heard a knock at the door. When I peered through the peephole and saw Castiel standing on the other side of the door, I immediately moved to open the door for him. I felt a bit awkward welcoming these three strange men into my apartment, but it seemed this was just going to be the sum total of my life now. I could barely look Dean in the eye, but Cas made it easier as he gave me something to focus on. “Hey, I was just getting a few bags out so I could pack.”

 

“Is there anything we can help with?” Dean asked, his voice low and gruff, and I swore I felt like I could have jumped out of my skin.

 

“Um, I don’t think so, really.” I chuckled as I added, a bit sarcastically, “I mean, I’m just a cook, I’m not exactly rolling in swag, here.” I still internally grimaced as I turned and picked up the bags I’d retrieved. _Rolling in swag, Tara? Wow, you are really hitting it out of the park today._ I ignored my self-deprecation and instead headed for my dryer, since I still had the last load stashed in there, too lazy to take it out and put it away before work. Some pretty solid necessities in there. Although, I had to pause and ask, “So, where exactly are we going?”

 

Cas replied, as he’d followed behind me. “Lebanon, Kansas. Or, just outside of it, really.”

 

I raised my eyebrows. “So, not as much thermal underwear, then. Noted.” I paused a moment before I stood up and grabbed the bags. “Is that where your … safe house is?”

 

“Yes,” he replied, matter-of-factly. “It will be safe there for you.”

 

“Even safer than small town Wisconsin?”

 

“Much safer.”

 

Well, I was just going to have to trust him on that. Nothing ever really happened in Menomonie, It wasn’t the smallest town around with a little under 20,000 as far as the population went, but it was pretty far removed from what a big city normally was. There wasn’t any danger lurking, I felt safe going out late at night by myself. Hell, sometimes I forgot to lock my damn door, that’s just how it was. It was how it had always been. I’d been born here, grew up here, I didn’t know anything else but here. Aside from a few family vacations to Wisconsin Dells or Door County or Devil’s Lake, I hadn’t ever really even left, much less moved out of the state. The thought of moving so far away so soon wrapped into a tight ball of anxiety in the pit of my stomach. Maybe some people yearned for adventure in a far away land, but I really just wanted to hang out and home with my friends and my family. I never really wanted anything big or lavish or exciting, just something normal.

 

I guess that bubble was burst now.

 

I rounded into my room, intent on grabbing some more clothes and my laptop and charger, when there was another knock at the door. Dean and the third man in their group - another _Alpha_ by the smell of him - looked suspiciously at the door as I came around the corner. Dean turned to me and asked, “Were you expecting somebody?”

 

I nodded, checking the peephole and opening the door. I was immediately enveloped in a big bear hug, and I hugged back with all the intensity I could muster. Seeing him, hugging him, it made this all feel that much more real, and that scared me. I squashed the beginnings of panic so I could try to enjoy the last moments I had with my father, and when I pulled back I put on a bright smile for him. I didn’t want his last physical memory of his daughter be that she was a crying mess. I had to be strong, for him if nothing else. I knew this was already going to be hard on him, I was the last of his two kids to get hooked up with an Alpha, and the fact that I was leaving so soon … it was bittersweet. He wanted me to be happy, of course, but for an Omega, that usually involved a relationship and a family of some sort. I had been riding high on the single horse for a few years now. I guess it was time to get off now. “Hey, kiddo,” he said gently. “So, who are these guys?”

 

“Oh, uh, Dad. This is Dean,” I said, gesturing to the tall Alpha standing in the middle of the living room, his pressed suit still looking immaculate. “And that’s his Beta, Cas,” I added, gesturing beyond him to the tall, dark haired man in the tan trenchcoat.

 

“And this is my brother, Sam,” Dean added for me, nodding toward the tallest of them all.

 

My dad smiled warmly, holding out his hand for a handshake. “I’m Kevin, Kevin Sullivan, but I guess pretty soon I’ll just be Dad,” he said with a laugh.

 

Dean returned his chuckle and his handshake. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Sullivan. I, uh, I’m sorry I’ll be taking your daughter away with me. Believe me, if I could leave her here and have her safety be guaranteed, I would, but … in my line of work, it’s best not to take chances.”

 

“Ah, of course. And where is it that you work?”

 

The smile fell from Dean’s face just a little, caution shading his eyes. “That’s, uh … classified. Sorry.”

 

“Government?”

 

He nodded. “Yeah, yeah pretty … pretty high up there.”

 

Dad nodded as he leveled a gaze at Dean. “You understand if I’m … a little reluctant to just let my last daughter up and leave with a stranger.”

 

Sam reached into his jacket. “Of course, of course we understand, this is pretty sudden, even for a soulmate bond. If this would … put you at ease?” He drew a small leather wallet out of his pocket and held it out to him, Dean and Cas both mimicking the gesture. My dad took them and opened them, eyeing them carefully before his eyebrows shot up in surprise. “CIA? Wow. Okay, that is, uh …”

 

“You understand, then, the need to get Tara to a safe house as quickly as possible, then,” Dean interjected when my father paused. “I don’t want to just tear her away from her life, but she would be in danger if I just left her here. Some of our … enemies … they wouldn’t hesitate to hurt or even kill her to get to me.”

 

My dad nodded, handing them their IDs back. I remembered that Cas had said they _weren’t_ CIA, but he’d implied that it was possibly higher than that … so maybe CIA badges were a part of a cover? I didn’t have the time nor the energy to put into trying to figure it out. Maybe I should have been a little more suspicious, but with the soulmate bond, all I felt from either Dean or Cas was honesty and concern without a hint of deceit. For that reason, I didn’t bring up my earlier conversation with Castiel, and simply allowed my father to digest the news. He brought his hand up and rubbed my back, “Just call me as soon as you can, okay? I’ll take care of everything here, don’t worry.”

 

I nodded, as there just wasn’t much more for me to say. My dad followed me back to my room where he helped me pack up a few of my things, mostly my books and some DVDs of mine that I really liked. I wasn’t taking the bulk of my heavy winter clothes because I figured Kansas wasn’t going to be near as cold in March as Wisconsin. Northern Wisconsin at that. So, jeans and long sleeves and a few sweatshirts, sure. But long underwear and heavy jackets, nah. I still wasn’t going to be taking everything, but I stuffed as much clothes, toiletries, and entertainment things as I could into a backpack and two full-sized duffel bags. Dad assured me, once again, that he would make sure the rest was packed up and stored in their basement until I could get the rest. Whenever that would be. The thought of leaving and not knowing when or if I would ever come back was making a thread of panic wrap itself around me. But I swallowed and kept going, trying to focus on the goal in front of me. Once I was all packed, I handed Dad the keys and gave him the biggest hug I could. It was well past midnight at this point, and it was time. Time to move out, to move on, to put this familiar town behind me. My palms were sweaty and I felt like I just wanted to throw up, but I pushed myself to keep going, helping Cas load my bags in the car and pile in, taking a seat in the backseat with him while Sam rode up front and Dean drove. I clutched my pillow in my lap, my nerves flaring as Dean turned the engine over, the old muscle car roaring to life. As he pulled out of the parking lot, he wordlessly went to flip on the radio, the dial automatically resting on the classic rock station I normally listened to. This time it was Journey, again, though a different song than the one that had woken me up this morning. Instead, it seemed rather appropriate as we pulled out of the parking lot of my apartment complex.

 

_I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow/Wheel in the sky keeps on turning …_


	4. Chapter 4

I leaned my forehead against the cool glass of the window, watching the darkened landscape pass by. Once we had left town, Dean had hopped on 94W that had taken us part way through Minnesota before switching highways a couple of times before settling down on 35S to take us down through Iowa. I had to admit, though I’d never seen it before, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul had looked rather impressive at night, all lit up despite the time. It seemed like big cities never truly slept, whereas in small towns they practically rolled up the sidewalks after a certain time. That was admittedly a little frustrating when it came to working a late shift like I did and having to plan days around normal business hours when that wasn’t what I kept, but it gave a sense of … normalcy, maybe? A routine that could be counted on, even if it did create small frustrations here and there. It was just the way things were and there was a certain level of comfort that I’d found in that. Now … now it had all been turned on its head. I didn’t know which way was up and which way was down or what was going to happen next. Anxiety was my new best friend, coiling in the pit of my stomach and settling in like a lead ball. I’d left so quickly, so suddenly, I hadn’t had much time to really think about what I was doing. But now, all I had was time to think.

 

I had expected to feel … I don’t know, strange or something, once we started crossing state lines, but I just felt numb. Maybe it was because it was so late and I had been through a long day, or just the sum total of events, but there was this strange, foreign sense of calm that clashed with the anxiety, creating a mental dissonance that I wasn’t sure how to handle. This kind of thing, moving quickly when a soulmate bond was created, it wasn’t necessarily out of the norm these days. Even if someone was already in a relationship, oftentimes they would simply incorporate the soulmate into their already existing relationship instead of breaking up what was already there, unless the previous relationship was just casual. Things were just understood and worked out, just kind of matter-of-fact like. I hadn’t really expected it to happen to me, though. To be honest, I hadn’t really thought much of the future, preferring to just enjoy the present as much as possible. I was just a simple cook at a fun restaurant with a bunch of my friends, and even though I was still single - which was odd for an Omega at my age - I didn’t feel a need to go out and get with somebody and start a family. My sister was the one who had been the typical Omega, and I’d seen how so well that had turned out. I had figured just going with the flow like I liked to do would serve me better. But it had only gotten me here, in league with an Alpha who, yes, scared the crap out of me. Dean just had this intimidating air about him that, even if he wasn’t an unfamiliar Alpha, would have made me want to stay away from him. But, there was also Castiel, who came hand in hand with Dean as a package deal. Even though polyamory was more or less rampant, I’d never been in a plural relationship before. Never really given it much thought, to tell the truth, probably because, as an Omega, it was rare to find two Betas or a Beta and an Omega who wanted an Omega. When it came to plural relationship opportunities for an Omega, there always seemed to be an Alpha involved, and since I’d wanted no part of that, it had just never been an option for me.

 

But now, I was deep in it, whether I liked it or not. And not just in a normal plural relationship, either, but one with a soulmate bond, which made it that much deeper … and more complicated when it came to someone who had issues with it, like me. Ugh, why did biology have to be the way it was? Why couldn’t I just be a simple Beta and pretty much just had my pick? Even with soulmate bonds, they were the least affected, overall. It simply gave them a deeper relationship with the people they were with, and made them better able to soothe or connect with someone. With Omegas, though, we experienced physical pain when we were either separated or otherwise didn’t receive any physical touch from the Alpha. In a similar way, Alphas experienced negative affects as well, though theirs were mental or emotional. Of course, if someone was already twisted, like Devin, it didn’t matter to them. The depression or anxiety or whatever they experienced just didn’t phase people like my brother-in-law.

 

Speaking of which, it wasn’t too far down the road when I had started shaking again, the pain starting to come back. I tried to hide it, conceal it, ignore it, but I couldn’t hold out forever and Castiel noticed when I started taking deep breaths. He had offered his hand to me and I’d wordlessly taken it, grateful for the little bit of relief that was offered with his touch. Likewise, he’d leaned forward and settled a hand on Dean’s neck, and with it, Dean had relaxed. I hadn’t even realized how tight, how rigid he’d been sitting, but once his body sagged in relief it had hit me that he’d been trying to fight off the effects of the bond just like I had been. Of course, I’d known that Alphas were still affected, but since it was more mental than physical it had been easy to ignore. There was a part of me that felt bad, that felt guilty. I wasn’t the only one whose life had been completely changed, but all of my musings so far was all about _me_. Now, I _really_ didn't know what the fuck to think or feel. Suddenly, I didn't just have me to consider, I had two other people who were affected by my actions.  _Why does this have to be so damn complicated?_ I whined to myself.

 

Castiel urged me to try to fall asleep early on, just after we had crossed into Minnesota. Sam was snoring in the seat in front of me before we hit the Twin Cities, and other than the classic rock playing softly on the radio the car was otherwise silent. Dean drove on through the night, Cas kept physical contact with both of us to help bring some type of relief, and me … well, I just kept staring out the window, my mind a tangle of all kinds of different thoughts that I didn’t even know if I had the energy to completely sort or not. As Minnesota itself flew by and we drew closer toward the heart of Iowa, at which point we would change course and head toward Kansas, the effects of the day started catching up to me. My anxieties and worries kept me up for quite a bit, but I couldn’t hold out forever, and I eventually crashed, my head still leaning against the window.

 

I slept hard and long, which was strange as I was normally a pretty light sleeper. But despite the roads and the traffic and the conversations that were undoubtedly happening around me, I didn’t wake until Castiel shook my shoulder. “We’ll be there soon,” he whispered in my ear.

 

I yawned and rubbed my face, waking myself up. It looked like Sam was already awake, had probably been awake for some time as he was actually in the driver’s seat and Dean was knocked out in the passenger’s seat. Strange that I hadn’t woken up when they had stopped to change drivers. _I wonder when that happened?_ I realized that we were no longer on a paved road anymore, but rather a dirt road, gravel and dust kicking up in the car’s wake. It wasn’t but maybe a few minutes later that Dean woke, stretching and then yawning before he sat up straight, and then a few minutes after that Sam pulled into a large, darkened garage.

 

I blinked, trying to get my eyes to adjust, and when they did my jaw went slack. There were dozens of cars in here, a few more recent models but most were classic ones, the kind that looked like they hadn’t been seen en masse in the streets in at least fifty years or so. _Just what kind of jobs do they have that makes them able to collect classic cars like this? Fucking shit!_

 

Sam parked the car and we all piled out, stretching our legs a moment before we gathered our luggage. I carried my backpack and one of my duffel bags but Dean insisted on carrying my other bag. I wasn’t sure if it was the Alpha in him or if it was just his personality itself, but I found myself unable to protest it, simply shouldering my backpack and following him and Cas and Sam into … wherever it was that we were. It certainly wasn’t a house, not in the traditional sense of the word. But, the kitchen was certainly nice and spacious, almost industrial like. Was this a base or something? I was about to open my mouth to ask when suddenly a blur of motion made me stop in my tracks. Startled, I looked around to see that it was another man, shorter than the others with a mop of blond hair. He’d leapt into Sam’s arms and planted a kiss on him, and Sam seemed to take it all in stride, as if he was used to this, looping his arms around the smaller man and kissing him back as he laughed. “Miss me much?” he asked.

 

“We both did,” the man replied, a Beta by the smell of him.

 

It was then that another woman appeared - _Oh thank fuck I’m not the only woman here_ \- beaming from ear to ear. She signed something to Sam, and in turn Sam smiled and signed something back before pulling her into his arms and marking her neck with his scent.

 

I jumped slightly as Cas’ breath tickled my ear. He’d leaned over to whisper, “That’s Gabriel and Eileen, Sam’s Beta and Omega.”

 

I nodded, thankful for him bringing me up to speed, because at the moment it seemed like the trio was in a world of their own, Sam scenting Eileen and Gabriel one right after the other. It wasn’t until Dean cleared his throat that they seemed to come out of it and Sam smiled sheepishly. “Right, sorry. Gabriel, Eileen,” he introduced, signing for Eileen, “this is Tara. We met here in Menomonie when, uh … when she and Dean soulmate bonded.”

 

Eileen’s eyes grew wide. “Really?” she asked aloud, then laughed. “I never thought Dean would bond to anyone other than Cas.”

 

Dean shifted and I could feel the awkwardness rolling off of him even without the soulmate bond. “Uh, she doesn’t, uh … _know_ yet.”

 

“Know what?” I asked.

 

There was a moment of confusion and then Gabriel must have realized what Dean meant. “Wait, you didn’t tell her before you brought her here?”

 

“Well we didn’t exactly have the time to sit down and hash everything out,” Dean said defensively. “The job was done, we were practically on our way out of town when it happened. We’d just stopped for a late dinner, hadn’t even changed out of our suits because we’d had to wrap up some things with the local PD.”

 

Gabriel smiled, almost mischievously if I didn’t know better. “What, no chance on the 9 hours or so between here and there?”

 

Dean sighed. “I didn’t wanna spook her and have her run before we had a chance to get her somewhere safe.”

 

“What is he talking about? Why would I be spooked?” I asked, my voice starting to shake ever so slightly. That tight little ball of anxiety that had been sitting in the pit of my stomach was starting to expand, enveloping me until it felt like it was constricting my chest. I suddenly got the feeling that I was in far deeper than I’d even thought, and worse still I was now hundreds of miles from home and everybody and everything that I knew. Had that been their plan all along? To isolate me and trap me, just like Devin had done to Ellen? But then, why hadn’t I felt any deceit or duplicity from either Cas or Dean? Were they just that good at covering up their true intentions? Who exactly had I bonded to?

 

I jumped as I felt a hand land on my shoulder and jerked my head to see Cas, assurance and calm flowing from his end of the bond. “It’s alright. We’ll explain everything. Let me show you where the bathroom and bedroom is and once everyone is settled back in, then we’ll talk.” He smiled as he squeezed my shoulder reassuringly, and I simply followed behind him as he showed me around a little bit, suddenly suspicious of everything that I saw. But what was I really going to do? I was out in the middle of nowhere in an unfamiliar place with people that I didn’t know. For the time being, even if they had bad intentions, the best I could do was play along for now. Play along and maybe hope that at some point … aw hell, who was I kidding, I wasn’t going to be able to run. Even if I did manage to somehow make it all the way home before the pain became unbearable, the rest of my life was doomed to be spent in agony. And that was if they didn’t come back for me. After all, they knew the town I was in, they undoubtedly could trace where my parents lived and anywhere I would take refuge in, even without the soulmate bond to draw them in like a homing beacon. I was pretty much just fucked. Nothing left to do now but accept that whatever was going to happen was meant to be. A somewhat bleak outlook, but it was the truth of the matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was originally going to have them tell her all about the Supernatural in this chapter, but the way the writing was going I felt it was going to end up being overly long, so I'll just save it for next chapter. :) Won't Tara be in for a shock?


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaand cue supernatural reveal. It goes about how well one could expect.

I set my bags in the corner of Dean and Cas’ room, then tension ramping up higher and higher. As we were all gathered in the same room, both of them seemed unsure how exactly to proceed until Dean finally just clapped his hands together and said, “Alright, let’s just get this over with. Tara, you, uh … you might wanna sit down.” I almost wanted to protest, say that I would stand because it was fine, I could take it. I wasn’t the kind of person that just wilted at bad news. But, considering the serious looks on both of their faces, I sat, taking a seat at a small table that seemed to function as a desk. Both of them stood, Cas with his arms folded by the door and Dean near the bed. I looked back and forth between them, fidgeting uncomfortably. Dean took a deep breath and then began. “So, I guess you’ve figured out, from what Cas has told you, that we’re not CIA.” I nodded, biting my lip, waiting for him to continue. “We’re, ah … we’re hunters. But we don’t hunt animals or game or anything like that, we hunt monsters.”

 

I breathed out in one huff, incredulous. “Monsters?”

 

“Monsters. Like vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts, demons … angels, if there’s a dangerous one on the loose …”

 

“Wait, so, hold on a second, you’re telling me you’re the goddamn Ghostbusters or some shit?”

 

Dean seemed to appreciate the reference as he chuckled, but Castiel’s expression didn’t change as he stood there. “Kind of, but … a little more dangerous than that. Like, a lot more. These creatures … they won’t hesitate to kill, a lot of them live off of killing humans, so that’s why we hunt them.”

 

“Uh huh …” I wasn’t sure what else I was supposed to say. I mean, this whole tale was just ridiculous! Did they really expect me to believe them that creatures of myth were real? I was suddenly nervous all over again, but for an entirely different reason … I had apparently fallen in with some dangerously insane people, possibly a cult. There were cults out there that believed in aliens and weird stuff like that, I was sure there were some that believed what I was being told. But, if they hunted these things … what all did that entail? Were they … killing people? I swallowed hard, trying not to betray the fear that I was beginning to feel. This was possibly a whole lot more dangerous than I had even been thinking.

 

They seemed to take my silence as acceptance as Castiel spoke up. “You seem to be taking this well.”

 

I couldn’t not say anything at this point. Because of the soulmate bond, they would sense something was up with me sooner or later. I was trapped here, after all, more or less. I let out half a chuckle as I said, “Are you kidding me? What kind of delusional bullshit is this? You hunt … ghosts? Vampires? Witches? They don’t …”

 

“Exist, right?” Dean interjected. He sighed before he continued, “Yeah, I know, it’s a lot to wrap your mind around, that the world you knew is a whole lot bigger than you thought, but it’s true. Cas here is an angel, himself.”

 

I broke out in laughter, holding my hands to my mouth. I didn’t really know what else to do, this was just insane. Mother nature surely was a cruel bitch to pair me with this set of dangerous, mentally unstable men. Laughing at this point was more a defense mechanism so I wouldn’t burst into tears. _This is it. I’m probably going to die now._

 

Dean simply looked over at Castiel, who unfolded his arms and stepped back from the wall. Suddenly, it seemed like a spotlight was shining on him, though there were no extra lights in the room that I could see, and then … holy fuck, were those _wings_? I blinked several times, the laughter dead on my lips as the massive shadow of dark wings cast itself against the wall. Even his eyes seemed to positively glow an unearthly blue. There was … there was simply no way this was happening. I prided myself on being a bit of a skeptic, not just accepting things at face value. I liked to investigate, consider all options, think things through. But my mind could come up with no conceivable reason how they could somehow project wings against the wall like that or make his eyes fucking _glow_ unless … unless … _Oh fuck, were they telling the truth?_ My stomach turned as I internally wrestled with it, trying to explain it away, find faults in what my own two eyes were showing me, but I couldn’t. And the more I couldn’t, the more I kept finding myself hitting a wall, the wall of acceptance of an idea. I kept turning around, trying to find a way around it but it simply wasn’t there. A hundred different emotions ran through me, leaving me dizzy in their wake as I tried to grapple with reality. My hands finally fell from my mouth, one landing on my stomach and the other gripping the table beside me. I felt like I was either going to be sick or pass out and I wasn’t sure which.

 

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dean take two steps and then pop a squat in front of me. He laid a hand on my knee to get my attention and once we locked eyes, he said, in a low, soothing voice, “Hey, Tara, it’s okay. Just breathe. Everything’s gonna be alright.”

 

“Alright? How the fuck do you just … live with this kind of shit?”

 

He half chuckled as he replied, “Well, Sam and I were born into it, more or less. When you grow up with it, it’s not as life changing as it is for someone like you.”

 

“And what about Gabriel? Eileen? Did they …”

 

“Eileen was born into it like we were. Hell, the reason she’s deaf is because of a banshee attack when she was a baby.”

 

“Banshee. Right.”

 

“And Gabriel, well … he’s always been a part of it. He’s an angel, too. An archangel, actually.”

 

“Archangel …” Something about that information clicked for me, and I couldn’t help the next question that popped out of my mouth. “Wait, you mean … Gabriel, Sam’s Gabriel … is he _the_ Gabriel? Like, from the Bible and shit?”

 

Dean nodded. “One and the same.”

 

“Holy fuck,” I whispered as I sat back in the chair, that panicky feeling settling in again.

 

Dean’s grip on my knee increased ever so slightly as he said, “Hey, stay with me.” I had turned inward so much, I had inadvertently thinned my connection to Dean and Cas. It wasn’t until I suddenly felt a burst of reassurance and calm from the both of them that I realized it as they worked as hard as they could to send that positivity through our bond. It did help, but I still felt a bit lightheaded. “You okay?” he asked softly.

 

Was I okay? Would I ever be okay? Somehow, I doubted it, but I nodded and replied, “Yeah, I just … I need some air.” I went to stand and I saw the protest in Dean’s eyes before he could get a word out. “I won’t go far, I promise. I wouldn’t even know where _to_ go, I barely have any idea of where I am. I just need a moment alone, okay?”

 

He nodded in acquiescence and stood up, allowing me the space to stand on my own and walk out the door. I somehow miraculously remembered the way back to the kitchen and exited through the garage, opening a small door on the side rather than the large garage door itself. I took in a deep breath as I leaned against the brick wall, shoving my hands in the pockets of my jacket. My fingers slipped over a familiar object, and I pulled out my last pack of smokes, about half of them left. I had quit about three and a half weeks ago, almost a full month. It was the longest I’d ever managed to go without a cigarette since I started smoking, and I was proud of myself. But, with current circumstances being the way they were, I figured I was owed a goddamn smoke. Shaking the pack to dislodge one, I pulled it out with my lips and then fished the lighter out of the pack and lit it up. That first inhale felt like absolute heaven. It didn’t do much to help my lightheadedness but I didn’t even care as I took another drag. Sure it was nice to wake up without hacking up a lung but fuck I had missed this. Casually smoking my first cigarette with a cup of coffee, taking smoke breaks with my friends at work, hanging out and passing one around when we were all low on funds but still had some to share between us. A few of us had made a pact to stop, but that was before all … this. _Sorry, guys._

 

As I finally held my precious first moment alone, I allowed myself to break down a little bit. I cried, kicked some gravel, mourned the normalcy that was now completely gone from my life. Never mind the transition from being completely single to being in a trio with an Alpha, that was now probably the furtherest thing from my mind. Now that I knew _things_ existed … like, things that I’d thought were just myths, like angels and ghosts and demons … in comparison, my problems seemed so small and insignificant. _I_ seemed so small and insignificant. I took another long drag, blowing out the smoke with a sob. How did my life get so mixed up in strangeness? Just yesterday everything was simple and routine, nice and safe. Now I had been thrust into a whole new world, and yet … it was still the same world as it was the day before, I just had a different perspective on it now. A perspective that was a little difficult to come to terms with. _So, not only am I soulmate bonded to an Alpha, I’m soulmate bonded to a scary, intimidating Alpha who hunts monsters and his Beta is a freakin’ angel. Fantastic._ My tears finally starting to abate, I pulled out a second cigarette, one just not cutting it right now. I bumped off the cherry of the first one and stuck it back in my pack, not having anywhere to really dispose of it and I wasn’t one of those assholes who just flicked their butts anywhere and didn’t worry about where it landed. As I lit up the second, a strange sense of calm blanketed me again. It wasn’t from Dean or Cas this time, it was from me. I thought it a bit strange, but I shrugged. I’d had my cry, my little break down. I’d come to terms with the situation as best as I could really. So what else was there for me to do? I wasn’t the type of person to dwell on shit, if I was perhaps I would be in a funk for weeks. I always tried to look at the positives in every situation. Like, _I may not make much money, but I have a nice apartment that suits me and I have plenty of food._ Or, _my job doesn’t pay a whole lot, but I work with my friends and have a lot of fun._ Likewise, in this situation … _I may be soulmate bonded to an Alpha, but at least I also have a Beta to lean on and they obviously care about me to some extent because otherwise they would have left me in Wisconsin._ Consideration … wasn’t that the basis of love?

 

The door behind me squeaked and I knew even without looking that it was Dean. Our connection was stronger than the one I had with Cas, since he was the Alpha, so even though we hadn’t sealed it yet I could feel and sense his unique presence, his vibration. I only looked up when he drew abreast to me, leaning against the wall across from where I was standing. “I didn’t know you smoked,” was all he said.

 

I smirked. After I’d quit, I’d gone on a deep-cleaning spree, scrubbing and washing every surface in my apartment to rid it of that smell. I figured if I didn’t smell the smoke, I wouldn’t be tempted, and whether that was true or not I’d made it almost a whole four weeks without picking one up. It hadn’t been easy, oh no far from it. But I’d made it. Hadn’t even been craving one at all for the past several days. And now I was on my second one. “Yeah, I quit almost a month ago. Was doing pretty good, actually, a lot better than any of my other attempts.” I chuckled as I added, “Then I found out monsters were real and figured why the fuck should I be so scared of cancer?”

 

He was silent for a moment, though I’d felt the momentary burst of mirth at my last statement. He shifted on his feet before he said, “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have ever told you if … you know. I don’t like having to tell people, it never really goes well. The knowledge changes you, makes you look at everything different, and I hate it when I have to do it.”

 

I nodded, silently taking another drag as I pondered what he was saying. The information had been difficult to digest, but I hadn’t even considered how it had probably been for them to tell me. It was probably weird and awkward as hell to be walking around with all this information and know that most people were blissfully unaware of the dangers lurking around every dark corner. And then have that heartbreaking realization that you had to break the news to somebody … yeah, I couldn’t imagine it was exactly easy for him, either. “So why were you in Menomonie?”

 

“Hunting down a coupe of ghouls.”

 

“Ghouls?”

 

“Yeah. Monsters that eat dead people, usually, but these had started moving on to live people. Kind of difficult to track, because they can shape shift, but we got ‘em.”

 

“So, they’re, like, undead?”

 

“No, they’re perfectly alive, they just like to eat the dead. And sometimes the living. And take their form.”

 

“Ah.” I took another drag from my mostly-gone cigarette before I asked, “So, that’s what you do, then? You just … go around, hunting down monsters, and then come back here for a little domesticity.”

 

I could see the grin on his face out of the corner of my eye. “Yeah, pretty much. It was actually a lot more transient before we found this place, we’d just always keep moving from town to town. Now we kind of have a home base and it’s a little easier to feel more normal. Or, normal for us, anyway.”

 

“So what is this place, then? What makes it so safe?”

 

“It’s an old bunker left over from the Men of Letters. They were an organization that kept all this lore and artifacts from the supernatural world. They’re gone in North America, save for Sam and I, but they had built this bunker before they were decimated. It’s warded up one side and down the other with just about everything you can think of. It’ll keep out almost every supernatural creature there is.”

 

“Almost?”

 

He shrugged. “Nothing’s perfect. There’s always something stronger out there. But I wouldn’t worry,” he added as he flashed me a smile. “You have me and Cas to help protect you, and Sam and Gabriel and Eileen ain’t nothin’ to sneeze at, either.” I couldn’t help but smile in return, taking one last drag before I bumped the cherry off of the cigarette and popped it back in the pack. I was starting to shake again, the pain started to hedge around the nicotine high that had staved it off a little bit. Couldn’t last forever, though as it started to seep into my bones with a deep ache. I closed my eyes for a second but opened them again when I heard the scrap of gravel against shoe. Dean was standing there, looking at me as he reached out, his hand outstretched before he stopped. “Look, I don’t know what you have against me, but please let me help you.”

 

I flinched. Of course, I should have known he’d assume I hated him with the way I acted. In the moment I hadn’t cared, though, I only thought of myself, was scared for myself. I did genuinely feel bad, and so I softly said, “It’s not you, I just … I have a hard time with Alphas in general.”

 

“Why?”

 

I pursed my lips. _Am I really going to go through with this with pretty much a stranger?_ Then a mental sigh before, _Yeah, yeah I guess I am_. “Because my sister soulmate bonded to an Alpha. He was real nice and sweet to her, they looked like the perfect couple together. And then after they got married and moved in together, he flipped a switch and turned into a manipulative bastard. If she doesn’t clean the house just right or have a nice dinner waiting for him when he comes home or do everything perfectly for him, he … he refuses to let her touch him. He’ll wait until she’s completely incapacitated and then just leer over her and berate her. And if she says anything, if she goes to someone or presses charges, and he’s removed, then she’ll might as well kiss the rest of her life goodbye.” I blinked and realized that a couple of tears had made their way down my cheeks, and I reached up to wipe them away. “I just … I was always afraid of ending up the same way. Trapped.”

 

Dean stepped closer to me, still offering his hand. “Tara, I know you don’t know me, but I would never do that to you. And I didn’t bring you here to trap you or isolate you or anything, I just wanted to _protect_ you. The only thing that was ever going through my mind the whole time you were running away from me through that restaurant was that I needed to protect you. And I’ll never, _ever_ withhold anything from you.” He stood right in front of me, his gaze piercing through me as he said, “I know we didn’t get the best start, but please give me a chance. A chance to prove myself and who I am. Let me help. _Please._ ”

 

Through our bond, his heart-felt plea seemed ever more intense, his compassion bleeding through until I felt like I was surrounded by his presence. Instead of suffocating, though, it felt … it felt good. It felt welcome.

 

It felt like home.

 

I knew there were still issues to work through, still things I had to fully come to terms with, but in that moment as I blinked away more tears, I nodded. As soon as I did, he reached out and cupped my cheek in his hand, and we both shuddered and moaned at the relief both of us felt. I leaned into his touch, reveling in the feeling. I had forgotten already what it was like to not have at least a manageable level of pain, as that’s all the relief that Cas’ touch could offer, but this was like a full wipe, like it had never even been there to begin with. He pulled me to him, resting my head against his chest as he kept his hand on my cheek and neck and I automatically wrapped my arms around his waist as his other arm circled my back. We stood there in silence for several long minutes before he finally whispered, “I’m not perfect, and I’ll never claim to be, but I _will_ take care of you. I _promise_.” With that, I felt the barest caress of his lips against my forehead and my eyes fluttered closed as I squeezed him. We had a ways to go yet, but we’d come to a middle, a point where we could both start from, and at the moment that was about as good as I could ever hope for. Maybe this whole thing wouldn’t be so bad after all. My head still wanted to stay cautious, but I felt the walls start to come down around my heart, brick by brick.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, I would have gotten this out yesterday but I had to edit, write show notes for, and then upload a podcast episode before the deadline for submission yesterday evening. This chapter did end up a little longer than usual, so I hope you enjoy it. :)

When Dean and I came back inside, hand in hand, Cas was in the kitchen preparing some food. He looked up briefly to see our contact and smiled before he went back to making what looked like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. “Our stores are running a little low,” he said as he started assembling them. “We’ll probably have to make a run tomorrow.”

 

Dean shrugged. “Well that sounds doable, I don’t see anything on the horizon anytime soon.” He turned to me as he asked, “What about you? Feel like going out and seeing the sights of glorious Lebanon?”

 

I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped. “Sure, yeah. Sounds about as exciting as Menomonie.”

 

He winked as he quipped, “It’s always exciting with me.”

 

I heard Cas snort as he put away the condiments before he picked up the plates and held one out for Dean and the other out for me. “Uh, what about you?” I stuttered.

 

He shrugged. “Angels don’t need to eat, and most of the times we don’t. It’s … strange. Hard to describe to a human. Besides, I know you haven’t eaten since yesterday, at the very least.”

 

I felt incredibly humbled that Castiel had thought enough of me to make me a lunch, even if it was just a sandwich, and I let go of Dean’s hand to take hold of the plate properly. We sat at the table in the kitchen and ate in silence while Cas took stock of the rest of the pantry and noted what we needed to stock up on and what would be fine to leave off the list. I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Sam or Gabriel or Eileen since we first arrived, but I figured they were spending as much time together as possible. Especially if Sam was constantly going on the road. The thought of which popped a question in my mind. “Dean? You said Eileen was a hunter, right?”

 

“Yeah,” he replied, reaching to take a sip of water before he went back to his sandwich. “Why?”

 

“Why didn’t Eileen come with you guys? Or Gabriel?”

 

He shrugged. “Well, it was just a simple job, and the more people you have on a job the more attention you attract, so if people aren’t needed, it’s best to go low key. That’s for one. For two, well … Sam and Eileen have been trying to get pregnant lately, and they didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks.”

 

“Ah,” was all I could really muster for a reply as I took another bite. Yikes, babies! That was another thing that was a potential outcome in a relationship like this … although, my cycle was fairly irregular, and the last time I’d seen a doc it was pretty up in the air whether or not I was actually fertile. She’d offered testing, but since I wasn’t with anyone and didn’t particularly care, I’d declined. _Shit, I might have to actually look into this now._ _Right?_ Though, just because Dean was an Alpha didn’t necessarily mean he wanted children. Some Alpha and Omega couples chose not to simply because they didn’t want any. I supposed we would have to sit down and have that conversation at some point … there seemed like there were so many conversations we would need to have, and I was just plain tired for the time being. Even though I’d slept in the car, it wasn't near what I actually needed. And then, of course, the events themselves of the whole past 24 hours … it would be overwhelming for most people, I would think. Definitely for me. Combined with the fact that I’d had to contend with being in pain for the past however many hours and had only just now finally gotten an actual relief, I felt ready to pass out. After having actual contact with Dean, I would be good for a little while yet, much longer than if I’d just had contact with Cas.

 

As I finished my sandwich, I stood and went to load it into the dishwasher that Cas was loading, when he took my plate from me. “You look like you could use a nap.”

 

I shook my head. “Shower first. I gotta wash that smoke smell off of me before I do anything else.” Ugh, I had just washed my dreads the day before, too, and now I had to do it all over again just to make sure all of the smell was gone from me. Best to do it right away, though, I didn’t want the smell to permeate into anything of theirs. I could tell that nobody here smoked and I figured they probably wouldn’t be too happy with a smoker stinking up the place. _Welp, more motivation for me to quit for good. That was the last time, for real._ I made my way back to Dean and Cas’ room to grab my shower supplies and something to change into before I backtracked to the bathroom. There were several stall showers set up in a row, all separated by high walls and frosted glass doors. The walls didn’t go all the way to the top of the ceiling, but they were tall enough that I doubted even Sam could see over them, unless maybe he jumped. I was the only one in the bathroom for the time being, so I started up the water and quickly stripped and set my clothes to the side of the shower stall before I jumped in.

 

_Good goddamn, this water pressure is divine!_ I’d thought my apartment’s water pressure was great, but this put it to shame. I think I set a new record for how quickly I was able to wash and rinse my dreads, and I wrung them out thoroughly and pulled them back for a moment while I scrubbed every inch of my body, intent on removing the smokey smell from every crevice. I was also going to have to isolate the clothes that I’d worn until I could wash them, so the smell wouldn’t bleed over into anything else.

 

Once I was clean and my skin was a bright pink and I smelled like a field of lavender, I shut off the water and dried off before wrapping my microfiber towel around my dreads. The bathroom was still devoid of anyone but myself, so I quickly dressed in some grey leggings and a mint green loose long-sleeved t-shirt. Just to make sure all of my bases were covered, I even brushed my teeth and rinsed with some mouthwash, just in case some of the smell was still lingering after lunch. _There, should be good to go now_. I was glad I had grabbed some of my garbage bags from home, they were those nice frebreze scented ones that helped hold smells in, and I was counting on one containing the cigarette smell. I loaded everything back up once I was done and trekked back to Dean and Cas’ room … now my room as well. _This is going to take some getting used to._

 

My shoulders sagged as I put away my things. Cas was right, I was fucking tired as hell. I didn’t really want to sleep on wet dreads, but I was about to fall asleep on my feet, so I grabbed my pillow and my favourite blanket that I’d packed and crawled up on the Queen-sized bed, hoping they wouldn’t mind me using it. I moved aside one of the pillows and set up a spot for me on the end, lying my dreads out to dry on my pillow before swaddling myself up in the blanket. I realized that I’d forgotten to turn the light off, but I couldn’t find it in myself to care as I was already drifting off to sleep.

 

Once again, I slept hard and deep, like I had in the car. It was unusual for someone used to sleeping so light, and while it was nice to have uninterrupted sleep, it was unusual. I chalked it up to just being so tired that my body didn’t care about every little sound and vibration in the surrounding five mile radius. I needed the sleep, after all, to help recoup from the stressful and life-altering events from the previous day. Well, evening, if one wanted to get all technical about it, since my day was completely normal right up until I went to fetch that check and credit card from Dean. But, technicalities notwithstanding, a lot of shit had happened. I’d soulmate bonded with an Alpha, moved several states away from the only real place I knew as home, and oh yeah, also found out that monsters were real. How any of them slept with that knowledge was beyond me. The only reason I could at the moment was because I was exhausted, and thankfully my body did afford me that rest.

 

The only real downside to it was that when I finally woke up, I was confused and disoriented, blinking a few times before I sat up in the darkened room. For a moment I couldn’t even remember where I was and panicked before everything started coming back to me. Dean and Cas, the bunker … though I could have sworn that when I’d laid down for a nap, the light was still on. I thought for a moment and, yes, I was sure that it had been on because that had been one of the last thoughts I’d had before I’d fallen asleep. Nobody else was in the room with me … so someone must have come in after I fell asleep and turned off the light. _Shit, I must have been really sleeping deep if I didn’t wake up from that._ I hoped I hadn’t spoiled anyone else’s plans by taking a nap there. I hadn’t given much thought to it at all, just curled up and fallen asleep giving no thought to anyone else. Feeling guilty, I wrapped my arms around myself and set out to figure out where everyone else was.

 

I got a little lost for moment, probably because I was still waking up, and ended up in a large library. My jaw dropped as I looked at shelves after shelves of books, many of them very old looking. All thoughts of finding someone went out the door as I wandered through the rows, too afraid I’d damage something to even run my fingers down the spines.What I could see of the titles, they looked very strange, though it didn’t look like they all had official titles. Many looked homemade, even, their bindings done by hand and their pages yellowed with age. I was so absorbed with my observations, that I didn’t hear anyone approach me until I felt a hand on my shoulder.

 

I almost jumped out of my skin as I whirled around to see a smirking angel standing there, still dressed in his trenchcoat. “So this is where you’ve wandered off to.”

 

“Sorry, I had gotten turned around and ended up in here.”

 

He shook his head. “It’s fine. There’s only one dangerous area in this bunker, but other than that, there’s no other off-limits areas for you.”

 

My brow furrowed. “Dangerous? Why is it dangerous?”

 

“There are certain … artifacts that are stored there. Cursed objects and such. Items that could quite literally kill you with one touch. The library, though, is perfectly safe.” He reached for a book and pulled it off the shelf, flipping it open. “This is where the Men of Letters stored their lore, their information about all kinds of different things. Monsters, weapons, objects, curses, spells, anything that they found they documented.” He closed the book and placed it back on the shelf as he added, “Feel free to read anything in here you wish. I can’t guarantee it will all be interesting or entertaining but it will certainly be informative.”

 

“Thanks,” I replied, making a mental note of that. If I was going to be in the know, as far as this monster thing went, I might as well learn what I could. I couldn’t imagine ever going hunting, and if I was honest I hoped I would never be asked, but it still never hurt to learn a thing or two.

 

“Did you sleep well?” he asked.

 

“Yeah, yeah I did. Did you, uh … did you turn out the light?”

 

He shook his head. “Dean did. He went to fetch some clothes so he could shower and turned it off for you. I trust you did not have it on for a reason?”

 

I shook my head, unable to help the small smile that crept onto my face. “No, I just forgot before I laid down and then I was too tired to get back up. I’m surprised I didn’t wake up when he came in, I’m usually a pretty light sleeper.”

 

“You needed rest.” He set his hand on my shoulder as he implored, “Come, let’s join Dean in the kitchen. He’s making dinner for tonight, and I’m sure sooner or later you’ll need some contact.”

 

Castiel was right, of course. Though the direct contact with Dean had held me over for the last several hours, I could feel the deep tingling that signaled that the pain was going to soon follow. Cas settled his hand on the back of my neck as he lead me to the kitchen to try to stave it off as much as possible, but it was so mild yet that I didn’t really notice a difference. The gesture itself was appreciated, however, and as we drew nearer to the kitchen I began to smell a delicious, savoury smell drifting toward me.

 

Dean was at the stove, a towel slung over his shoulder as he tended to a pan in front of him. He turned as we entered and flashed us a smile, taking one last look at the pan before wiping his hands with the towel and walking toward us. “Hey, I see you found Tara,” he commented.

 

“Yes, she had gotten lost and wandered into the library.”

 

“Oh? I was sure you were gonna hafta wake her up.” He chuckled as the edges of his lips quirked upwards in a mischievous grin. “You were practically snoring when I grabbed some fresh clothes.”

 

Indeed, he had changed significantly since the last time I’d seen him. When I’d first met him, of course, he’d still been wearing a business suit, and even when he joined me while I was smoking he’d only taken off his jacket and tie. Now, though, he sported a white undershirt and red flannel shirt over top with a pair of well-worn blue jeans. Even though he’d been striking in the suit, he looked much better in his more casual attire, in my opinion. It seemed to suit him better, and he certainly looked a whole lot more comfortable. He held his hand out and I took it without question, the tingling immediately receding.

 

“I hope you like burgers, because there were several pounds of ground beef that needed to be used.”

 

“Are you kidding me? One of the best things about working at Snakey Jake’s was getting a free burger.”

 

He chuckled. “Woman after my own heart,” he said, half under his breath. To Cas he said, “You wanna go see what Sam’s up to? I’m sure he’ll want to whip up a salad for him and Eileen.”

 

“Of course.” And with that, the angel was gone, up and out of the kitchen almost quicker than seemed possible.

 

When I was pretty sure he was well out of earshot, I just had to ask, “Does he always wear that trenchcoat?”

 

Dean laughed. “Yeah, almost always.”

 

“Huh. Doesn’t he get hot or anything?”

 

He shook his head as he replied, “Angel’s don’t get hot. Or cold. They don’t feel temperature like we do, so they could go completely naked in the Arctic or head to toe in thick wool in the Sahara and be fine either way.”

 

“Hmm.” _Lucky bastards._ Sure, I’d lived in Wisconsin my whole life, was pretty much used to the biting cold that came with living in the Midwest. That didn’t mean that I _liked_ it, however. It was just a part of life. Similar to how people in, say, Arizona coped with the heat in the summer. I was pretty sure not everybody enjoyed the extremes, but they just put up with it because what else were you going to do, really? Not everyone had the opportunity or the means to just up and move somewhere more temperate and to their liking.

 

“You okay now?” Dean asked, nodding toward our joined hands, asking if I would be okay to let go for a little while.

 

“Oh yeah, I’m fine,” I replied, pulling my hand out of his and giving him a smile as he went back to the burgers on the stove.

 

As Dean predicted, Sam came bounding into the kitchen like an excited puppy, also changed out of his suit and into a light blue flannel, a similar pair of blue jeans covering his impossibly long legs. He opened the fridge quickly and started pulling things out, presumably to make the salad Dean had indicated he’d made, He seemed to be excited about something, however, it didn’t take a telepath to tell something was on his mind. His brother seemed to notice as he piped up from across the kitchen, “Hey, what’s got you so excited over there?”

 

Sam set a few containers on the counter and wiped his hands on his shirt before shooting his brother a beaming smile. “Dean.”

 

“What?”

 

“Dean.”

 

“ _What_?”

 

“We did it.”

 

The kitchen was silent for just a moment as Dean digested what Sam had said, but he quickly figured it out as a lightbulb went off over his head. “Really?”

 

“Yeah!”

 

“Dude, awesome!” Dean crossed the kitchen to pull his brother into a tight hug.

 

The two clapped each other on the back several times before they finally parted, and it was hard to tell whose smile was bigger. “It’s just so surreal,” Sam murmured.

 

“How far along? Or do you know?”

 

“6 weeks.”

 

With that, I finally understood what was going on. “Eileen’s pregnant?” I asked tentatively.

 

By Sam’s smile, that alone was my answer, but he punctuated it by closing the distance between us in a few strides and picking me up and swinging me around in a bear hug as he laughed. As he set me down, he apologized, “Sorry, I’m just …”

 

“It’s okay, I get it,” I said with a chuckle. He was obviously over the moon and while I didn’t know him much yet, I was happy for him. His smile didn’t leave his face once as he chopped up some vegetables and assembled it into a couple of bowls. He’d offered to make me one, but I declined. Not that I didn’t like salad, but if burgers and fries were on the menu I wanted no parts of rabbit food. If I wanted to eat healthy, I would go all the way. If I was going to eat a burger, the only vegetable I was going to follow it up with was potatoes, preferably of the french fried variety.

 

Dinner that night quickly became a celebration. Sam was practically glued to Eileen’s side, and I swore she positively glowed. Was that what being pregnant was like? I’d never really given it much thought. Some Omegas obsessed over pregnancy, tracked their cycles religiously even if they weren’t with anyone at the moment, “because you never know!” They were the type who joined parenting and pregnancy boards and gushed about anything baby related 24/7 even if they were probably the furtherest thing from pregnant. Don’t get me wrong, to each their own. And if it made them happy, then who was I to object. I was just so firmly _not_ one of those Omegas, when the possibility was presented that I might not even be fertile, I had just shrugged and moved on. Part of my whole enjoying the moment thing, I didn’t really give much thought to the future. It drove my mother crazy. She’d always pressed me to go to college, pursue a career, make something of myself. But whenever I’d thought about it, I didn’t know _what_ I wanted. Either out of a career or even out of my life in general. And so instead of going thousands of dollars in debt, I simply went to work with my friends and never gave it a second thought. Maybe that was a bit reckless, a bit too much of a cavalier attitude for this day and age, but I’d never thought to be any other way. But now … now I was firmly entrenched in a triad relationship. My life had completely changed over the course of 24 hours, and even in my easygoing way about life, I felt completely lost.

 

Considering my lengthy nap earlier, I was surprised when I started yawning during dinner. I would have thought I’d end up staying up late into the night, not just because my body was used to the schedule but because I’d nudged my bedtime back even later by sleeping so much during the afternoon. The entirety of the events of the past day plus the travel must have really taken a toll on me, however, because I almost fell asleep a few times while watching TV with the rest of them. Of course, the couch was pretty comfy as it was, and I was nestled between Castiel and Dean, the latter purposefully rolling up his left sleeve so I could effortlessly access him if I needed to. There it was again, that consideration, that care. I still wanted to be cautious, take it slow, not give in so easily, if for my own ego than nothing else. I’d always despised being an Omega, considered a slave to my sex drive, useful for little more than breeding and fucking. The few relationships I’d been in, the Betas who’d roped me in hadn’t won me over so easily. I made them work for it, earn their place in my life. Now, though, that had been taken completely out of the equation by the soulmate bond, and I felt off balance because of it, unsure how to proceed.

 

That night was a perfect example, as we all prepared for bed. I’d changed in the bathroom, pulling on my loose grey sweats and a dark blue plain cami. _Where_ I was going to sleep was still a mystery to me, but Dean had arrived in the bathroom while I was brushing my teeth, dressed in a similar pair of loose grey sweats and nothing else. I’d kept my gaze furiously averted, looking at my reflection in the mirror and the sink underneath me, and he seemed amused. After he attended to his own needs, he laid an arm across my shoulders and guided me back to his room. “You’re not going to last all night without me, not without waking up in pain. It’ll be a tight fit for tonight, but we can look at beds tomorrow if you want.”

 

“Tight fit?” The bed looked to be a Queen sized bed, surely big enough for two people … unless angels slept. Did angels sleep? They didn’t eat, they didn’t get hot or cold, but was that the caveat, that they had to physically rest?

 

“Cas always stays with me during the night, while I sleep. I’ve always told him he could do what he wants, but he always ended up with me no matter what.”

 

“So he doesn’t sleep, then?”

 

“No, not in the sense that humans do. They do have this … resting phase that they can enter, they aren’t really unconscious but they aren’t physically conscious either. It’s …”

 

“Hard to explain?”

 

He chuckled. “Yeah. As it is with most things related to angels.”

 

I was beginning to understand, at least that I _didn’t_ truly understand, if nothing else. After a few awkward moments figuring out how the sleeping arrangements would go, Dean settled in the middle of the bed, with Cas to his back and me in front of him. We all laid on our sides, so as to give each other the maximum amount of space we could, and as we all laid there in the darkness, I felt Dean reach out and brush his hand against mine, threading his fingers through mine so as to establish the contact. I was touched by his last act of kindness before he fell asleep, ensuring that we wouldn’t go without contact during the night so I didn’t wake up in pain. _You’re alright, Dean Winchester. You’re alright._


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick chapter, just to make up for not posting yesterday. :)

During the night, I didn’t sleep as deeply as I didn’t during the car ride or my nap, waking up here and there for slight position changes and shifting, but overall it was still a little deeper than normal. I felt like incredibly rested and awake when I finally did wake up that morning, finding that at some point Dean and I had shifted closer together. It was incredibly warm under the covers, and I’d wiggled out of them a little bit instead of burrowing in them like I usually did. _Shit, I could have used this heat back in Wisconsin_. Chuckling inside, I quietly slipped out of bed and grabbed one of my bags before I slipped down to the bathroom. I didn’t want to risk waking him while I was trying to find something to wear.

 

I splashed some water on my face to help me wake up before I opened my bag and pulled out a pink and grey striped sweater and a pair of freshly laundered jeans and thick, oatmeal coloured wool socks. It wasn’t very cold in the bunker or outside, according to me at least, but the floors were a combination of hardwood and tiles, which always lent it toward being a little colder no matter what. To me, at least. Cold in general I could deal with, but cold feet? Out of the question.

 

I dropped my bag off near the door of our room and wandered toward the kitchen, wondering if there was any coffee to be had. I wasn’t a hardcore coffee drinker who considered it the source of all life, but I did enjoy a cup in the morning. I almost started to see Gabriel already in the kitchen, pouring a cup of already made joe. _Do angels drink coffee?_ I briefly wondered, suddenly shy as I realized that _Gabriel_ was standing mere feet away from me. Gabriel, the powerful archangel, standing in the kitchen, making a cup of coffee.

 

As if he sensed my presence, he turned and flashed me a grin. “Surprised to see you up before Dean-o.”

 

I shrugged as I drew closer. “I’m a light sleeper.”

 

The archangel held up the pot in his hand. “Coffee?”

 

Nodding, I replied, “Yes, please. Where are the cups?”

 

Instead of answering me, he showed me by opening the cupboard above him and grabbing a standard white mug, pouring it as well. “There’s milk and some creamer in the refrigerator if you like.” His smile grew just a little bit more as he mentioned, “Sam prefers his nice and sweet.” With a wink he added, “Just like me.”

 

I couldn’t suppress the chuckle as I added some sugar to my cup. For being an archangel, he seemed pretty down to earth, not really quite what I would have expected. Of course, then again, I wasn’t sure exactly what I would have expected considering up until yesterday I hadn’t even believed angels were real. Now I was living with two of them. Talk about a change, boy.

 

I had just put the milk back in the fridge and was taking my first sip of coffee when Dean stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing his face and yawning. He blearily mumbled, “Good morning,” before he grabbed a mug for himself and poured a cup, only adding a spoonful of sugar before taking a nice, long sip. It wasn’t but a few minutes before he perked up, though, the coffee hitting him fast and hard. By the time I was about halfway through my cup, he had finished and was rinsing his out. “Ready for a little road trip today?” he asked.

 

I quirked my eyebrow. Well, I had well left my home state behind. Might as well be adventurous now. “Sure. Where are we going this time?”

 

“Well, got a couple of places in town, but Wal-Mart is about an hour away. Should be fun,” he added with a wink. “Meet you in the garage in ten.”

 

I made sure to grab my one light jacket that I kept around before making my way to the garage. Sure enough, Dean was there, sitting in the driver’s seat with the door still open as he flipped through a small box of cassette tapes. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen a cassette, but of course the car was so old it didn’t have a CD player or a way to easily hook up a phone. I could appreciate a nice collection of tapes, though. I used to have quite a number, myself, until I converted to CDs and then eventually digital media. If I’d had my druthers, I would have built up a nice vinyl collection now that they were coming back, but … cook salary and all.

 

“Where’s Castiel?” I asked as I approached the car.

 

“He’s staying home this time. It’s just you and me.”

 

“Oh. Okay.” Not that I was completely opposed to going alone with Dean, but I’d expected to have Cas with us. Despite our moment of understanding the day before, I felt a little nervous at the prospect of spending over two hours just in a car with him all alone. I shoved my nerves aside and got in the passenger side, closing my door at the same time as Dean. _This is going to be interesting._

 

It was in the high 30’s out and dry, barely a breeze rustling the trees and the fallen leaves. First stop was a gas station to fill up and then a standard dollar store for some quick necessities that could be had for cheap. Then it was on the road to the great big box store. I was surprised when we crossed the border over into Nebraska, and when I asked Dean, he revealed, “There’s a couple in Kansas in the area but I prefer this one. Better layout. Layout is really key. Get in, get what we need, get out. If the layout is poor, it makes the process longer and I can’t stand it.”

 

Well, I couldn’t fault him for that. Shopping wasn’t exactly my favourite activity, but that was more due to the fact that I usually had to work around my work hours, which meant either getting up early or taking an off day, and neither was really an option I liked. The ride was otherwise pretty quiet, save for the sounds of Deep Purple playing through the car speakers. Aside from a few vacations, I’d never taken a long car ride, but it was pretty relaxing, looking out the window and watching the scenery fly by. Before I knew it we were pulling into the parking lot and Dean was pulling out the list to give it a once over before he stuck it back in his shirt pocket. I followed him through the store, sticking close in unfamiliar territory. When Dean talked about being in and out, he wasn’t kidding, he’d filled the cart within ten minutes and was pulling up to the self-checkout line. We both tag-teamed it, with me handing him items as he scanned and bagged, and I started loading while he paid. I wasn’t really sure what or how he paid, hunting monsters didn’t seem like it was a typical salaried job, but I didn’t ask questions. Figured it was probably best that way.

 

We had both been silent through the store and that didn’t change as we loaded up the car. Though he was always sure to offer me his hand if I needed it, otherwise it seemed like we were total strangers. And, for all intents and purposes, we were. Just because we had soulmate bonded didn’t mean that we were suddenly intimately familiar with the other. We were courteous and nice and now at a point where we were willing to give the other a chance, but we still didn’t really _know_ each other. I could feel a discussion looming on the horizon, and when we got back into the car I realized I wasn’t wrong.

 

He slipped the key in the ignition but didn’t turn over the engine just yet. He sat there for a moment, one hand on the keys the other on the steering wheel, before he took a deep breath and said, “Tara, I gotta be honest with you, I have no idea what I’m doing.”

 

The confession caught me a bit off guard, but my reaction was honest. “Well that makes two of us, I guess.”

 

He let go of the keys and sat back, tapping the steering wheel with his thumb. “I won’t lie. I had never really considered bringing an Omega into mine and Cas’ relationship. I thought that we were enough and I was cool with that. This whole thing has just … kinda thrown me for a loop, and I don’t really know what to do. There’s just so many conflicting things going on in my head right now.”

 

I nodded thoughtfully, understanding what he was going through. Being soulmate bonded, I did have the drive to be close to him, to bond further with him, to go even further than that. But at the same time, my mind kept slamming down practicalities. _He’s a stranger. He’s nice but you still don’t really know him. He’s a fucking_ Alpha. It was a strange case of dissonance and I was glad that it seemed he understood. Some might have thought it hurtful to hear that someone like oneself wasn’t even wanted, but if anything I felt a bit relieved. The kindness and consideration was just Dean being Dean, and while he didn’t reject me he was having trouble accepting me into his life. _I think we’re a lot more alike than either of us probably think._

 

I tentatively offered, “Well, for what it’s worth, I think you’re doing a bang up job so far. I mean, you’ve been nice and considerate and helpful. Pretty much everything that I didn’t think an Alpha would be.”

 

He snorted. “Just because I hadn’t wanted another person in my life doesn’t mean I’m gonna give you the cold shoulder. Yeah this whole thing is weird, but … you’re still my Omega. And I’m gonna take care of you.”

 

That seemed to conclude things as he reached forward and started up the car, buckling his seatbelt as he pulled out of the parking space. The ride back was just as silent as the ride up, but it seemed just a little bit more comfortable than before. I had to wonder if that was Castiel’s reason for not joining us, considering the look he gave us both when we returned. But, whether it was intentional or not, I was grateful for it. Cas just seemed to instinctively know what we both needed and catered to it, either up front or on the down low. I had always wanted a guardian angel to look after me, and now it looked like I got my wish.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in updating this, some things have just started happening in my personal life and ... yeah. It's just been really difficult lately. I'm still here, though, trying to power through it. Camp Nano is at least giving me the motivation to keep on writing, even if it's just a little bit at a time.

The next couple of weeks were a strange, slightly awkward mixed bag. I strove to create a new home for myself in the bunker, Dean and Cas tried to adjust to having a third in their group - though, Cas seemed to adjust better and more quicker than Dean - and I tried to come to terms with the fact that my life, as I knew it, was over. I’d had to call Miranda and let her know what was going on and she wasn’t exactly happy that I’d had to up and leave … though, once I explained, as best I could, that I’d only left because it wasn’t safe, she was more worried for me than anything else. They would just have to snag somebody, and soon, to be dishwasher while they upgraded Luke to full-time and looked for another part-timer to bring on. I was sure Luke would be ecstatic about finally landing a stable, full-time position that he’d wanted for so long. I was happy for him, of course, but a small part of me was still sad that it had to be _my_ position that he took.

 

This whole situation just seemed so … fucked, at times. It was just so different and weird and even confusing at times. My emotions were all over the place, conflicted left and right with my brain and my thoughts. I tried to thin my connection with Dean as much as I could so it wouldn’t leak over, but I was afraid I wasn’t always successful. I think that’s what lead to Dean offering to clean out an unused room so I could have a space to retreat to if I needed some alone time. He seemed to be embroiled in an internal struggle of his own, but that didn’t mean he was rude and inconsiderate to me, the source of his troubles. Instead, he tried to be accommodating as much as possible, leaving me be when I needed the space. Even in my worst, most self-loathing moments, that thought always came back to me … _It could always be worse_.

 

Because it could be. I could have been mated with an Alpha who didn’t really give a shit about me, who grabbed me and ran because Omegas were little more than property, forcefully bred and knotted and locked away when not in use. Most people liked to think that we, as a society, had progressed to a point where we were all seen and treated as equals, but there was still that dark underbelly present. Maybe that was a part of the reason I had never wanted to leave my small hometown, I hadn’t wanted to take the chance that something could happen to me and I would just disappear forever.

 

Of course, that had more or less happened, but it wasn’t the scary reality I’d thought it would be. Instead of being chained up in a basement somewhere, I was living in a spacious bunker and even had a space of my own. I couldn’t come and go as I please, but that was more for my own safety than me being forcefully confined. I otherwise had the run of the place, aside from the marked storage room that they warned me away from. Dean had taken it upon himself to describe to me exactly what kinds of things were in there and what they could do and suffice to say that had successfully deterred any curiousity I might have had. Best to leave that to professionals to handle.

 

I took Dean up on his offer, helping him clean out the room before I did what I could to make it my own space. I didn’t have much, just what I’d managed to pack into three bags, but I had sufficient space to store things, at least. Besides the dresser and the closet, it also had a nice antique rolltop secretary where I could store my laptop and my other miscellaneous media. It didn’t have a bed, but I didn’t really need one. Instead, along with a comfortable desk chair, there was a fabulous sofa that I just sank into. Perfect for lounging while reading a book, or napping. It was larger than the one I’d had in my apartment, long enough where I could comfortably stretch out and not have to bend my knees or scrunch up in any way. It was almost as comfortable as the bed that Dean and Cas took me out to buy to replace the one that had previously been in their room. Instead of being all up in each other’s space, we now had enough room to maneuver into a comfortable position without putting anyone out. Still, when the lights were out, our hands usually found each other, intertwining to give each other the comfort and ease that the simple touch provided.

 

During the day, though, the simple intimacy of sharing touch at night somehow turned awkward for both of us. We both made ourselves available to each other so we could benefit from shared touch, but once we’d both gotten our fill, we usually went our separate ways. We weren’t hostile or anything just completely unsure how either of us were supposed to proceed now that we’d been bonded. Castiel usually ended up running interference, doing things either outright or subtly to bring us together. Neither of us resisted, and if anything I think both of us were grateful for the glue that Cas offered that helped bind us all together. Things certainly would have been even weirder and more difficult if it weren’t for his efforts, even if it was just bringing us to watch TV or helping to make a meal together. I may not have been very technical in the kitchen, but I knew plenty of basics and was solid enough to work in a simple kitchen, and my skills were pretty much on par with Dean’s. Surprisingly enough, for someone who’d pretty much just lived on the road, he had a nice amount of cooking knowledge, and I had to wonder who had taught him or showed him … or if he had possibly just binge watched enough cooking shows in ratty hotel rooms because there was nothing else to watch.

 

I didn’t know what their typical schedule was like when it came to hunting, but from the implication I’d taken from a couple of people it seemed like they all planned to stay at the bunker a little longer than normal. Maybe it was the fact that Eileen was pregnant and Sam wanted nothing more than to be around her, maybe it was the fact that Dean had unexpectedly soulmate bonded with me, or perhaps they just felt that they needed a break. Hell, maybe it was a combination of all those things. Whatever the case, we were all sequestered together in the bunker for a total of three weeks, leaving only once in a while to make a shopping run for something or another. At the end of that three weeks, however, Dean got a call on one of his phones. They were needed on a case, and there wasn’t anyone they could send in their stead, so Sam and Dean prepared to pack up and tend to the case themselves. Castiel and Gabriel would be staying at the bunker with Eileen and I, to provide for us. Not that we couldn’t have taken care of ourselves, but even though the job was only several hours away, we would be immobilized from pain well before they were expected to return, and in Eileen’s condition it could be dangerous for her and the child.

 

Speaking of, out of anyone in the bunker, I’d grown particularly close to Eileen. I don’t think it was just because we were both Omegas, but because despite the fact that she was deaf and I knew absolutely no sign language whatsoever, she reached out to me and, along with Castiel, to help ease my transition to living life in the bunker. Of course, she spent a lot of time with Sam and Gabriel, but she still made time for me, so we could sit down and talk and bond and she could help introduce me to this new life. While Dean wasn’t necessarily opposed to me asking questions, it was more of a situation where I had to approach him. Eileen, on the other hand, was proactive and more than willing to tell me all about various monsters and certain ways to help protect myself from them. And, aside from the hunting life, she allowed me to simply be _human_ , to talk and even vent if I needed to. While she had known Sam when they soulmate bonded, it had still been a little strange for them to transition from being friends and more or less coworkers into partners. She was truly an invaluable resource for me, and I grew to love the warm Omega.

 

So when Sam and Dean left for a case, I found myself actually quite happy about it. Not that I didn’t want Dean around, per se, it felt so weird and awkward and, at times, forced between us, that a break was fantastic. Also, it would give me more of a chance to hang out with Eileen, and that was definitely something I could get behind. Before, she’d often come into my private room and we’d sit on the couch and talk and laugh, me making sure that I was always facing her so she could read my lips. She also taught me some sign language, some simple, easy things just in case she couldn’t quite get what I was saying. I’d never learned another language before, but since she’d been quizzing me on it almost every day and forcing me to use it off and on, it was sticking well. Much better than I’d anticipated, at least. I’d taken a couple of years of Spanish in High School and while I’d gotten decent grades in class, I barely remembered any of it, aside from the random word here and there. Gabriel even got into her little game, occasionally ambushing me with a signed question or statement before smirking as my brain started to furiously work out what he’d said. He was quite the little trickster, which I hadn’t really expected from the archangel, but it seemed business as usual for everyone else.

 

The night that they’d left, intending on driving through the night, Eileen and I and both the angels gathered in the living room area to watch a movie, with subtitles on for Eileen, of course. It was yet another run of _The Shawshank Redemption_ , but nobody minded because it was the kind of movie you always watched when you saw it was on, even if it was mostly over. I’d watched it partially so many times on TV, I realized that I’d rarely seen the actual beginning, and so it was nice to get to see it all the way through. We all settled in on the large couch, our respective angels by our side to offer touch when we needed. I sighed somewhat contentedly as the opening scenes played out, the comforting nostalgia seeping into my bones. My life had taken a bit of a weird turn, but there were times - like this moment - where it felt like everything just might turn out okay. Maybe, over time, the normal moments would balance out the weird and I’d find a good balance. For now, I would just practice my old habits of enjoying the moments as they came.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Managed to finish this chapter after editing a podcast episode today, which I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to accomplish both. So, yay!

The case itself was supposed to take a few days, maybe a week tops depending on how it went when they got there. That meant plenty of time to relax away from Dean, and I seized that opportunity with vigor. I couldn’t quite be alone as much as I really wanted to, though. Since my Alpha’s touch was being withheld, I had to go with my Beta, and while it did help numb the pain to a tolerable level, it never lasted for as long as my Alpha’s. That was the frustrating thing about soulmate bonding. It was supposed to help encourage the couples to stay together and bond, but in weird circumstances like mine it just seemed to make things awkward.

 

Instead of hanging out in my room alone, though, that just meant that Castiel stayed with me most of the time, and the angel was good at staying inconspicuous if I needed some me time. He’d usually just sit near me on the couch and maintain contact while I read or watched something on my laptop. The somewhat interesting thing about angels was that they had existed for so long, spending time doing literally nothing meant little to them. I didn’t outright ignore him, just got wrapped up in my own thoughts a lot of the time. Sometimes, though, sometimes we did talk.

 

Of course, being an angel, he didn’t quite have down the social cues and ideas of what was fine to talk about and what was awkward. Even spending as much time as he had amoung humans, even being bonded to him, that still didn’t erase several millennia worth of existence and experience. So, two days after Dean and Sam left, he ended up throwing this question at me seemingly out of left field.

 

“Do you dislike Dean?”

 

It startled me out of my thoughts, which had been a little depressing, still missing and grieving over the life I’d left behind. I took a minute to think about it, as there wasn’t quite an upfront immediate answer available. He was intimidating, sure, but part of that was played into by my own issues with Alphas. He was certainly handsome, but then again so was Devin, so looks didn’t move me. He was kind and considerate, though, despite the circumstances of us being forced together, and he hadn’t given me a reason to dislike him thus far, so I answered accordingly. “No.” I paused just a moment before I questioned, “Why do you ask?”

 

He sighed a little, not in exasperation, more like he was trying to gather his own thoughts. “I am concerned that our bond has gone so long without being fully sealed.”

 

“There’s no danger in that, though. Is there?”

 

He shook his head. “No. But still … knowing what I know of Dean, from personal experience, it just seems strange to me that it’s gone this long.”

 

Well, this was certainly an interesting observation from the angel. I bookmarked a page in the book I was re-reading and set it on my lap. “What do you mean?”

 

He licked his lips tentatively as he answered. “I know that this is a strange situation for you, that you were pulled into this suddenly, with no warning. I’m well aware you had to leave behind everything you knew, but …” he chuckled slightly, “… I know I’m biased, but for me there’s never been anyone I’ve wanted more than Dean. I don’t understand the hesitation.” He paused to look me in the eye as he added, “I’m not judging, I just … I simply want to understand. To help. My part, as a Beta, isn’t just tending to the needs of both the Alpha and the Omega, but also to facilitate their relationship with each other. And, if I’m being honest, I feel like I’m failing. Dean is anxious and worried about this working. I know he doesn’t talk about it, but he is. I’ve been trying my best to soothe him and attend to your comfort during this transition but it appears that my best just isn’t enough.”

 

The look on his face was simply heartbreaking. I could even feel his emotion through our bond, that’s how strong it was. I swallowed hard, realizing that my hesitation affected more than just me and Dean, it affected Cas, too. Probably even Sam and the others, as they knew Dean and Cas far better than I and likely knew something was up, just like I’d know something was wrong with one of my friends. I pursed my lips, building up my courage to face my own issues, and with an angel, no less. “It’s not Dean, Cas. It’s … it’s me. I just …” I sighed as looked away, unable to face the angel at the moment. “I have a hard time with Alphas in general, and it’s nothing to do with Dean or anything he has or hasn’t done. I’m just … afraid.”

 

I felt Cas’ hand on mine, his fingers gently stroking my own as his voice dropped to a soothing level. “What are you afraid of? Dean won’t hurt you. And, if it would make you feel any better, I can be there with you, to help assure you nothing will happen without your consent.”

 

My face burned at the thought of not only fucking Dean, but having Cas there as well. I wasn’t a prude, exactly, but the thought of a threesome just seemed out there. Of course, so far Dean hadn’t shown himself to be anything like Devin, but whenever I even passively thought of fully sealing the bond I started to feel panicky. After all, Devin had been the perfect gentlemen before he and Ellen sealed their bond, and then … I shuddered as the same possibility presented itself with me. I didn’t think I could bear it, seeing Dean’s kind face twisted and contorted into a sadistic smirk, leering over me as I lay immobilized with pain. Of course I wanted to think that he wouldn’t do that, that Castiel wouldn’t let him do that, but that fear was still present.

 

Castiel squeezed my hand. “Tara?”

 

I realized I’d gone completely silent while my thoughts swirled in my head. _Well, I guess no better time to confront this than the present._ So I spilled everything to the angel, about my sister and Devin, about my own reservations, about how I was trying, trying _so hard_ to come to terms with everything that had happened in the past few weeks. Castiel simply sat there, silent, absorbing every word, letting me talk at my own pace until I was finished. As I talked, the words just spilling over my lips without me even thinking about it, I became more and more calm. At first I thought Castiel was using his Beta abilities to help, but I realized that the feeling of calm wasn’t coming from his end of the bond … it was coming from _mine_. The more I talked and revealed my fears the more in control I felt of them and also unburdened of them, so that by the time I finally finished I felt incredibly light and … free, in a way. It felt amazing.

 

As I sat there on the couch, feeling liberated of my troubles, Castiel’s hand moved from my hand to my cheek and I glanced over at him. His gaze was intense, but I couldn’t look away. I felt him reach across our bond, as tenuous as it since I hadn’t fully sealed my bond with Dean, and when we connected, I felt such a bright reassurance that mirrored the calm that I’d felt, and something in me felt like it finally let go. _Peace_. That was it. That was what I felt now. Peace.

 

His deep voice almost felt like it rumbled through my own body as he said, “I understand your fear, but there is nothing here that will hurt you. This is new and strange for all of us but Dean and I will protect you and keep you safe. We will never force you to do anything you do not want. I only ask that you try to open up, as Dean and I will do the same. I can’t promise there will be no hardship, but I can promise we will always be by your side.”

 

The raw emotion behind his words left me speechless, and I could only nod as an errant tear or two slipped down my cheek. With one swift motion, the angel cradled me in his arms and in him I felt a radiating warmth, a promise. I had been questioning myself over these past weeks, asking if I could really give in and submit to this destiny that had been decided for me. In this moment, it felt like I could, like I could not only survive but thrive in it. Everything Castiel was offering was everything I had only ever wanted … safety, security, understanding, support. And if the angel himself promised that Dean could follow through on it as well, then … well, then I figured I could really give Dean a chance.

 

The peace between us settled in, and I felt more and more at ease with everything, with the whole situation. Now I was actually looking forward to Dean returning. If things remained awkward between us, it wouldn’t be because I wouldn’t try to reach out. Both he and Cas had also been shoved into this situation, I wasn’t the only one whose life had changed, and it was high time I started acting like it instead of a sulking child. Maybe that was a bit of a harsh assessment of myself, but it was what I felt as I stepped back and looked at the situation. They had both been incredibly understanding and accommodating. It was time to return the favour.

 

Suddenly, Castiel tensed against me, and alarm bells felt like they were going off in my head, but I didn’t know what it was from. It took me a few moments to figure out it wasn’t from me … it was from Dean.

 

“Dean,” Castiel breathed, sitting up straight. “Something’s wrong.” He fixed his patented intimidating angel gaze at me as he said firmly, “I’m going to go to him. Do not, under any circumstances, leave the bunker. Do you understand?”

 

I nodded fiercely and just like that, Castiel disappeared in front of my eyes. I let out a tiny yelp as I jumped further back on the couch, startled by what had just happened. Was that normal for an angel to do that? What was going on with Dean? My heart pounded hard against my chest as I tried not to hyperventilate. _Please be okay, Dean. Please be okay._


	10. Chapter 10

After Castiel disappeared, I just sat there in stunned silence. _What just happened?_ Was Dean in trouble? Was that what we had both sensed? And just what was up with the disappearing act from Castiel? I stared at the space he’d previously occupied on the couch warily, as if it was now tainted with a weird energy. I truly didn’t know what to do now, that feeling of alarm and danger not subsiding yet. I felt like I needed to move, to get out, but Castiel’s words of warning still rang in my ears. I worked to calm my breathing, and and while the panic didn’t fully go away, I could focus on it and realize that it wasn’t coming from me. That feeling that I needed to leave, that was Dean, it was what he was feeling. And while I was worried, the fact that I was safe did help me calm down, and I used that opportunity to try to send a little bit of that peace I’d felt earlier to Dean. I couldn’t do much of anything in my position, but I would do what little I could. If transferring my peace to Dean would help him have a clear head so he could think and get himself out of whatever situation he was in, then it was worth it.

 

As a result, however, my worry started to reach a fever pitch, as the calm and peace was leeched from me and created a vacuum. I didn’t regret sending it to him, but it was harder and harder to control my breathing. I felt like I jumped through the roof as the door banged open, an archangel and his omega in tow. “What happened? Where’s Cassie?” he demanded, all mischief gone. He was all serious concern now, worry clearly etched on his face.

 

“I-I don’t know,” I stuttered. “We were just sitting here, and then we felt something, something from Dean. He said something was wrong and then he made me promise not to leave the bunker and then he just …” I gestured with my hands, still staring at the empty space he’d sat at, “… poof, gone! I don’t know what happened, he was there one second and gone the next, I’ve never …”

 

“It’s okay,” Gabriel interrupted, his voice a little lower and calming. “He just flew off to help Sam and Dean.” He took a big breath that sounded full of relief. “I was hoping he had left. I can’t …” he gestured towards Eileen, who looked just as worried as I was at the moment. I realized that if Dean was in trouble, Sam most likely was as well, and they would have felt that through their own bond. No wonder Gabriel had burst in the way he had, he’d probably been searching for Cas, wanting to make sure he’d left to help the brothers since he couldn’t leave Eileen. Since he’d already left, all we could do now was wait. Wait and hope that Castiel would come through and save them both.

 

Gabriel ushered us both out of the room, insisting we both come with him. Even though he wasn’t my Beta, he took charge like he was mine, helping guide and calm me the way Castiel would have had he been there. He took us both in the kitchen and set a kettle on the stove to brew some tea. Eileen was feeling a little under the weather from morning sickness and lemon tea was her go to. Even though she was feeling mostly fine, and my stomach was only in knots from what I’d received over my bond, it was a nice comfort for both of us. As the archangel poured the boiling water into two mugs and added a generous amount of honey to each, Eileen touched my arm gently to get my attention before she signed, “ _They’re okay. They will be fine. Castiel will bring them back. He always does.”_

 

I mustered what I could of a smile and signed back, “ _Thank you.”_ I was glad somebody was confident about the whole situation because I sure as hell wasn’t. This was all brand new to me, not just these feelings but this life in general, hunting and the supernatural. It seemed surreal at times, like it was all part of some weird fever dream that I would eventually wake up from. The tea did help, however, the warm liquid coating my throat and warming me from the inside out. I wasn’t sure if it was because Dean had left, but I’d felt particularly cold since then, like there was a chill around me and I just couldn’t warm up properly. I was glad I had included some of my winter wardrobe because I was all about the sweaters and sweatshirts lately. Even now, in an over-sized grey sweater and flannel lined jeans and wool socks I felt chilled, despite the long-sleeved shirt I wore underneath the sweater just to add to the layers. It was then I noticed that Eileen was just as bundled up as I was, and I realized it must not just be me, either it really was cold or it was related to Sam and Dean not being here. Maybe that was part of the reason she’d been all over Sam when he returned. I know if my source of heat had left I would be hard-pressed to leave them alone once they came back.

 

The feeling of alarm lessened in me, and I wasn’t sure if it was just time and the removal from the immediate situation or if things were really calming down. Either way, there was an underlying feeling of nervousness with a slight edge of desperation. More than anything I wanted Dean to be here, in the bunker, where it was safe. With the help of Castiel, I’d only finally began to actually view him as a mate, as somebody I was with, not just another person inhabiting the same space. It couldn’t end now, it just couldn’t. Gabriel did his best to keep us occupied and distracted, and while Eileen went along with it smoothly, I couldn’t fully focus on anything but Dean. One hour passed, and then two, and with Gabriel’s help of starting dinner for everyone, a few more slipped by after that. I was becoming more nervous and twitchy by the minute, but I followed directions and assisted in battering up the chicken to be fried before we stuck it in the oven with mozzarella for chicken parmesan. I was thinking this seemed a little premature, to assume they would be back in time for everything, but I followed Gabriel’s lead. It wasn’t easy, as part way through I could barely lift a spatula I was shaking so hard from the pain that was taking hold, but neither Gabriel nor Eileen said anything about it and took over for me, Eileen shooing me to a chair and signing very firmly, “ _Sit. Rest. Now.”_ I felt bad putting more duty on her, but she hugged me to assure me that she was fine before she rejoined Gabriel at the stove, giving the sauce a stir. I wrapped my arms around myself, closing my eyes as I tried to will my teeth to stop chattering. What was taking so long? Why hadn’t anybody heard from Sam or Dean yet?

 

As if the very thought summoned them, I heard a now familiar rumble enter the garage. My head shot up as I looked toward the door, my heart in my throat. I knew Dean wasn’t dead, since our connection was still there, but not knowing what happened or what shape he was in was driving me crazy. And now I was _finally_ going to find out.

 

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Gabriel tap Eileen on the arm and sign that Sam was here, and when she turned toward the door I swear her face radiated such pure joy. Almost as if that was his cue, Sam appeared, leaving the door slightly open in his wake as he made a beeline directly for Eileen and Gabriel, scenting them both. My heart still felt like it was in my throat as I looked toward the door anxiously, clutching myself as if I was going to fall apart if I didn’t. When Dean finally appeared, Castiel on his heels, the relief that flooded me was incredible. I almost felt drunk on it, if that was possible.

 

Maybe that was why my next move was simply reaction, pure instinct. Throwing all caution to the wind, I jumped up from my chair, ran over to him, threw my arms around his neck and pulled him into a kiss that surprised us both.

 

As I pulled away, seeing the shock on his face, I covered my mouth and mumbled, “I’m sorry.”

 

He broke into laughter at that, stating, “Well, that’s a first.”

 

Well, he didn’t seem opposed to it, which was a good sign. Figuring I might as well continue on this good streak while I had the chance, I added, “I just … I really missed you.”

 

He smiled softly, pulling me into his arms and holding me close before he whispered in my ear, “I missed you, too.”

 

Behind us, I saw Castiel standing there, a beaming smile on his face. I reached out to him and he took my hand as I pulled him into our embrace. Castiel had helped me get over this hump, and I might still need help in the future, but I knew I could depend on the angel. And now I finally thought myself ready to open up to this new relationship that I’d been shuffled into.

 

Dean shifted and I wondered at first was he was doing, but I soon realized he was scenting me, moving slow and cautious, watching me for my reaction. Instead of tensing and turning away, I opened up my neck more, giving him access. His scent came across strong now, not faint like it had before when simply touching or holding hands. Deep musk and notes of pine and earth. It reminded me of camping and the woods and everything rustic and simple and good. Following his lead, Castiel was next, scenting both of us, his clean, fresh scent like cotton and linen with a hint of salt that reminded me of the ocean, even though I’d never been to the ocean before. I returned in kind, my own scent blossoming like it never had before, the wild orchid and sandalwood notes combining with theirs to make a scent that was uniquely us.

 

For the first time in what felt like a long time, I felt like I belonged. Like I was home. And damn, was that ever a good feeling.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of a longer chapter, but I'm sure y'all don't especially, especially considering there's going to be smut involved. ;) I don't know why but my confidence in my smut-writing abilities have gone down lately and I seem to doubt every sex scene I write. *shrug* Last year I could have breezed through this easy peasy lemon squeezy, but it took me all day to write this as it was more like difficult difficult lemon difficult. I hope you enjoy regardless!

I spent the rest of the evening feeling completely blissed out, like everything was finally sliding into place the way it was meant to. Dean and I hovered around each other, the new step we’d taken in our relationship still fresh and new and exciting, and I caught Castiel grinning at us more than once. The happiness radiated off of him, even without the bond to feel it with. It just felt _good_. Like, what the hell had I been waiting for? Everything within me felt like it just sighed in relief, now happy and content. Unlike previous evenings, I didn’t retreat to my room after dinner to spend some alone time before bed. Instead, I lounged with Dean in the living room area, watching random TV shows and laughing at the quips traded between Dean and Gabriel. It seemed almost surreal, in a way, to see a human so casually sassing an archangel, but this was my life now. And for once it didn’t seem overly strange or out of place, it was simply the way things were.

 

I breezed through a quick shower before bedtime, just a basic body wash down. Because I’d had to contend without my Alpha or my Beta for several hours, I’d gotten a little sweaty in response to the level of pain. I didn’t have the time to do a full dread wash, but I figured that would be on the menu later, possibly tomorrow if I had the chance.

 

As we all settled into the bed, Dean and I laid much closer than before. We weren’t full on snuggled up to the other, but he looped his arm around me and I did the same to him, the physical contact easy to maintain since I wore a simple cami and he went shirtless. He’d taken a shower before bed as well, but the Irish Spring couldn’t mask his scent, which I now breathed in deeply. The very thing that scared me before now felt comforting as I let myself drift off, smelling sweet pine as I dozed, slipping deeper and deeper into a peaceful sleep.

 

The way I fell asleep, I figured I would sleep unusually deep, and I did for the first part of the night, but after several hours, I awoke suddenly. There was something not quite right, and I couldn’t pinpoint right away, but I felt off. It all suddenly became clear when I nearly doubled over into a fetal position with a cramp, feeling my sweats suddenly dampen. _Fuck, my heat!_ It was early, a little too early even for my irregular cycles. _No, no, no, this can’t be happening, not now!_

 

I sat up slowly and turned, swinging my legs off the side of the bed in an attempt to get up and … well, my plan kind of ended there, but whatever it was I would have done was stopped short as another cramp surfaced and made me double over right where I was as I felt another small gush of slick. Not that Omega’s heats were ever totally pleasant - unless there was an Alpha around to help them, Betas and toys only went so far - but this was easily the worst condition I’d ever been in. I’d usually have a little cramping, maybe a little bloating, and of course plenty of slick, enough so that I never needed any lube when easing my own pain with toys. I had packed my two _instruments_ , as I liked to call them, burying them deep within a duffel bag when nobody was looking, too embarrassed to have anyone notice. It wasn’t that it was unusual or anything, but still … the only people in my apartment at the time was three complete strangers and my own father. And, while my father was an Omega, himself, and certainly understood, there was just something about the idea of my dad seeing my sex toys that just squicked me out.

 

Once I’d gotten here, I’d left the toys in my bag until I got my own room set up, and then I buried them in a deep corner of the dresser, safely tucked behind a bunch of shirts. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to handle my heat at first, though once I got my own room I’d figured I would just hole up in there and maybe occasionally text Cas for a sandwich or some water. But the way I was feeling, there was no way I was going to actually make it to the room. A light sheen of sweat started forming on my forehead as I sat there, clutching my stomach, my breathing shallow and my vision swimming, wondering just what the hell I was going to do.

 

I felt a hand on my back. “Hey, you okay?” The soft, sleepy voice belonged to Dean, but I sensed Castiel just behind him as well, awake and aware something was up.

 

“Dean, I …” was all I was able to get out when another cramp ripped through me and I was clutching my stomach again, trying to ease as much pain as possible with the pressure.

 

The beside table lamp flashed on and out of the corner of my eye I saw Dean sidle almost gracefully down off the bed to crouch in front of me. At the same time, I felt another set of hands - Castiel - settle on the back of my neck. Dean lifted my chin so he could look me in the face, and the instant he saw my dilated pupils he knew. “She’s in heat,” he said, mostly to Cas to confirm what was happening.

 

Cas sighed behind me. “I was hoping this wouldn’t happen.”

 

“What?” I asked, my heart thudding in my chest, but for a different reason than my heat.

 

“There is a small chance that, when an Omega is first scented by an Alpha, they go into a heat.”

 

I closed my eyes. “Fuck.”

 

Dean settled his hands on my knees. “What do you want me to do? What can I do to help? Is there anything I can get you?”

 

He was offering me an out. In the chance that I didn’t want him yet, he wanted to give me the chance to act on that, to put off our first time. Because the first time we mated, our soulmate bond would completely seal, and if I wasn’t ready he wasn’t going to push me. I appreciated the thoughtful gesture, and perhaps a few days ago I would have taken him up on it, had him help me to my room and then lock myself inside so I could take care of myself. But after the trust I’d put in him, it seemed almost foolish to do that, like I would be taking a step back in our relationship. And I didn’t want to go back, I wanted to go forward.

 

Placing my hand on his, I shook my head and said, “I need _you_.”

 

He paused a moment, and in that brief stretch of time I was afraid. Afraid he would say no, afraid that he wasn’t ready yet, afraid that I had overstepped a boundary. But after that moment he simply said, “Look at me.” It wasn’t a command, just a gentle request. He wanted to make eye contact with me and I gave him that, raising my head and opening my eyes. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. If you want to wait, I’ll take you to your room and lock myself in here until it’s over. I don’t want you to regret something like this. So when I say I need to ask you this question, I need you to claw through whatever hormones are trying to take over and answer me honestly …” I felt, then, his mind engulfing mine as he watched in every way to make sure that I wasn’t making this decision while impaired. I met his gaze and his own mind, opening myself up fully as he asked, “Is this what you want?”

 

Keeping level with his gaze, I replied, “Yes.” Was I nervous? Hell yes I was, I’d never been with an Alpha before and I knew that they were, um … different than a Beta. But I was trying to put my trust more and more in Dean, and I wanted him to trust me, too. Something in me knew he would take this seriously.

 

He nodded, his mind withdrawing from mine as he had my true and honest answer. “Do you want Cas to stay?”

 

Though the thought of having a third person even remotely involved had made me mightily embarrassed mere hours before, I found myself responding, “Yes.” Castiel was responsible for easing and allaying my fears, comforting me, easing me into this transition and bringing Dean and I together. He was my rock - _our_ rock - and while I trusted Dean I also felt I needed Cas with me. That, plus the surging hormones probably helped, as every moment I was getting more and more turned on and the cramps were getting harder to ignore. They had eased a little as they’d sensed an alert Alpha so close, but since nothing was happening, they started to return and I whimpered, dreading the next wave.

 

Dean reached up and gently brushed his lips against mine, Castiel moving even closer behind me. As we parted, Dean whispered, “Shh, don’t worry. I’m gonna take care of you.” He kissed me one more time before he nuzzled my neck, scenting me before moving lower. Castiel took over nuzzling my neck, laying soft kisses as Dean hooked his fingers into the waistband of my sweats and pulled them off. I saw his eyebrows raise ever so slightly as he realized I wasn’t wearing underwear, but he didn’t say a thing as he parted my legs and immediately dipped in for a taste.

 

I moaned as I leaned back against Cas, his gentle caresses comforting and grounding all at the same time. As Dean went back and forth between flicking my clit and spearing me with his tongue, Castiel gently pushed one of the straps over my shoulders, exposing one of my breasts before he gently cupped it. As he ran his fingers over my painfully erect nipple I arched my back, the sensation shooting straight to my clit, which Dean was currently sucking on. Yeah, so, maybe this whole threesome thing wasn’t so bad. The combined sensations was amazing, and I almost wished I wasn’t in heat just so I could get the full experience. Being in heat somewhat dulled my senses, made it a little different. Everything was intense and sexual but I couldn’t really focus properly, not like I could if I wasn’t in heat. Of course, I couldn’t quite find it in me to think about that much or care as Dean slid two fingers into me, curling them as his tongue drew circles around my clit. I was quickly becoming unraveled by both of their ministrations, squirming but otherwise practically boneless, sagging against Castiel. The angel held me flush to himself, his fingers and lips dancing over my skin and finding and exploiting all the sensitive spots he found.

 

Which, during a heat, was even more than usual.

 

“Oh, fuck,” I whispered as I skirted dangerously close to an orgasm as Dean didn’t let up, focusing his attention more fully until my whole body seized, gripping Dean’s fingers as the orgasm coursed through me. It was quick and fairly easy, which was typical for a heat, and if I wasn’t half out of it I would have sworn Dean looked almost disappointed it happened so quick. But whether that was the case or not, he didn’t seemed to mind too much as he wiped excess slick off of his mouth with a grin.

 

He whipped off his own sweatpants and leaned forward to plant a searing kiss on my lips, supporting me with his arms so Castiel could move. I heard the rustling of fabric behind me but I couldn’t see what the angel was doing until I felt his naked skin press up against me. “Come with me,” he whispered before circling his arms around my waist and tugging me up more fully on the bed. He leaned against the headboard, his fingers slipping under my shirt briefly before he pulled it off me in one swift move. Dean crawled up on the bed after us, his own pupils dilated as he feed off of my pheromones. I was putting out like crazy, and I was sure Sam’s Alpha nose would eventually get a whiff of it. If I could have thought straight, I would have been embarrassed, but at the moment the only thing I could properly think about was what rested between Dean’s legs. And the way he was crawling up on the bed gave me a pretty good goddamn view.

 

I’d seen porn, sure. I mean, who hadn’t? So I’d had a good idea of what Dean was probably packing. But actually seeing it in real life, up close and personal, knowing that it was about to go inside me? It terrified and turned me on to a seemingly endless degree. Castiel reached between my legs to separate them, pulling them apart and draping them over his, as if I was on display for his Alpha. For _our_ Alpha. That almost predatory gleam in Dean’s eye inspired another gush of slick as he slowly drew close, pinning me against the angel with his gaze alone. My heart pounded in my chest as he settled in between my legs, brushing his tip gently against my wet folds, teasing me. I could sense that he was quite the tease in the bedroom, and while that was fun, at the moment I had a pressing _need_ and I whimpered as I felt my inner muscles involuntarily contract, aching for any kind of contact. He silenced any other sounds with a gentle kiss as he lined himself up and gently pushed.

 

I wasn’t sure what exactly I’d been expecting when it came to fucking an Alpha. I mean, sure, bigger penis and all that, but I was no virgin and thought surely it couldn’t be that different than being with a Beta.

 

Oh how wrong I was.

 

By the time he settled into me, fully sheathed, I felt like I could barely breathe. Omegas were meant to take the length and girth of an Alpha, but even being with a Beta or using a toy did little to prepare me. I might as well have been a virgin, for all intents and purposes, and I think he picked up on that as he simply rested inside me for a moment, letting me adjust to the size difference. Given my heat and the amount of slick I was producing, it didn’t take long and he slowly started grinding and thrusting.

 

I had noticed when he’d first put his arms around me that Castiel was naked, but it didn’t quite hit home until Dean was slowly thrusting in me that Cas’ dick was also hard and pressed up against me. I didn’t want him to walk away from this empty handed and blue balled, so I slipped a hand behind me and gripped his length. The angel practically purred in my ear as his teeth grazed my lobe. His voice rumbled through my back as he whispered, “Naughty Omega, aren’t we?”

 

I turned my head and caught his lips in mine, our tongues immediately breaching the others lips as I could feel Dean’s intense gaze on us. It felt deliciously risqué, kissing one man while getting fucked by another. I would have sworn I couldn’t get any wetter, even while being in heat, and yet somehow I did, especially as Dean started picking up the pace, getting into the groove. I broke apart from Cas to moan lewdly, not even the slightest bit concerned about if someone might hear us. Later, when I could bring myself to a more coherent state of mind to feel possible shame about it, Dean would explain that both our room and his brother’s room were completely soundproofed for exactly that reason. They may have both been very happy with their relationships, but that didn’t mean they wanted to _hear_ the others going at it. In the moment, though, anything but what was happening was the furtherest thing from my mind. No concerns, no stresses, no issues, just slick and heat all the sounds that accompanied it.

 

Though I had essentially just had an orgasm, I felt another one just down the hall and around the corner. Without withdrawing from me, Dean looped his arms around me and scooted a little bit more toward the middle of the bed, whispering in my ear, “Ride me, Omega.”

 

Who was I to protest? I needed no encouragement as I ground my hips against his, throwing my head back in ecstasy. Castiel quickly joined us, and in my stead, Dean offered his hand for the angel’s use, since I had to do what I could to concentrate on balancing myself. Dean thrusted in time with me, his knot swelling. I held off my own orgasm, fought against it, wanting to wait for him. I just knew that if I did, if we came together, that it would be far more intense and wonderful, especially for our bond. I think he must have figured the same thing as I felt him increase his strokes for Castiel. The angel, in kind, shuddered behind me, holding on to me and Dean as his hips jerked in response. From behind me, he reached out to Dean, who responded in kind and leaned forward to lock lips with his Beta.

 

Seeing those two kiss was … wow. Yeah. No words could have described what it was like to see their passion, their love, up close and personal like that. And to know I now shared a part in that? It was incredibly humbling. I had fought this so hard and so long and yet now that I was in the midst of it I had to berate myself for pushing this away. This love and beautiful and supportive and passionate and wonderful and every other positive adjective I could think of plus a few more I couldn’t. I felt high on the bliss alone, like it just couldn’t get any better than this.

 

But, of course, it did.

 

As the two men parted, they were both panting heavily, and from the way Castiel was gasping and Dean’s knot was growing, I put two and two together and realized that they were close. Just as close as I was. Dean’s face was contorted slightly with effort as he gasped out, “Tara, are you close?”

 

“Been … holding back,” I replied.

 

“Then stop,” was all he said as he pulled me over slightly to center me between them, Castiel pulling my dreads off my shoulders. Within a few more strokes, his knot breached me, and that action alone had me howling with what felt like an earth-shattering orgasm. At the same time, I felt Castiel’s warm spurts against my back as both he and Dean bit the base of my neck in tandem. We all shuddered and moaned as our bond finally sealed completely, locking in place and tying us even tighter together than we were before. The feeling was amazing, and none of us even tried to move as we all leaned on each other in our blissed out state, reveling in the even greater level of intimacy we now shared. Castiel in particular seemed extra affectionate, gently stroking my sides as he lazily laved his tongue over where he’d bitten me. Dean couldn’t do much more than lightly nuzzle my neck.

 

And me? I smiled, fully content and sated. I probably wouldn’t be able to say that in the next few hours, but for now everything was perfect. While this wasn’t exactly how I’d pictured my life going, I couldn’t think of any other way I’d want it to be.

 

As the aftershocks of orgasm finally started to die down for all of us, my eyes slid from the ceiling to the men with me, and I realized that I could see their auras. I’d heard that soulmates could see their mate’s auras, especially after their first time, but since I hadn’t seen anything yet I’d chalked it up to urban legend. But sure enough, there it was. Dean’s was a deep red, pulsing and strong, and as I looked from him to Cas, I saw that the angel’s aura was a beautiful gold, almost as enchanting as he was. I glanced down at my own hand, curious if I could see my own, and sure enough, there it was, pink and light. I flexed my hand a couple of times, curious at how I looked now that I could see the aura I’d doubted that I’d had, but enough time for that later. For now, all three of us gently transitioned to lying down, with me still in between Cas and Dean, though they both reached around me so they could maintain contact with both myself and each other. Dean and I in particular slipped into a light doze as we waited for his knot to deflate enough so we could disengage, all of us enjoying this special moment that we were experiencing together.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another smutty chapter for y'all ;)

Though I was dozing comfortably, I immediately woke up with Dean withdrew, his knot deflated enough to slip out with ease. I whimpered from the loss of contact, but Castiel was there, his soft lips pressing kisses to the back of my shoulder. I was still blissed out, riding the high of our combined sexual energy while I could. Sooner rather than later it would start up all over again, but for the time being I enjoyed the sated feeling while it lasted.

 

Dean got up, but I was half asleep already and couldn’t bring myself to care where he was going and what he was doing. I needed my rest to get through the rest of my heat, especially if I was going to be with a proper Alpha for it. I wished it could have held off until the morning, when I would have had a full night’s rest behind me, but of course biology is rarely so convenient. Instead, I would have to snatch sleep where I could get it, and while I wanted to enjoy the warm snuggles of the Beta behind me, I succumbed to sleep quickly.

 

When I awoke next, Dean was back, and I realized he must have fetched a towel or something to clean us up with because things were not as damp and sweaty as I remembered. _How the fuck did I manage to sleep through that?_

 

I guess a good dicking goes a long way.

 

But the satisfaction was starting to fade, and though I was supremely comfortable nestled between the Alpha and the Beta, I was starting to get uncomfortable again, that bloated, crampy feeling beginning to return. I squirmed a little, rubbing my thighs together to try to stave it off as much as possible while I snuggled into Dean’s chest, but I could already feel the slick leaking and I whined softly, knowing I didn’t have long. _Stupid body with stupid biology._

 

From all outside appearances, it would have looked like Dean was sleeping, but whether he was or if he was just resting or dozing, he picked up on my growing need almost immediately. I felt his lips brush mine as he gently shushed me, “It’s okay, I’m here.” And indeed he was, his erection already pressing against my thigh, his body in tune with everything that was going on. He smoothly pulled me into his arms and rolled me under him, his lips never leaving mine while he did so. My legs automatically wrapped around his waist, my hips bucking upwards in search of what I needed to ease the ache. He reached in between us to line us up, pushing in slowly once he’d found it, and he seemed to enter me easier than the last time. I was sure I would feel very sore by the time this was all over and done with, but for now my hormones made sure I was comfortable enough to keep going, to play through whatever pain I was put through. It was both a blessing and a curse, as even when I was with a Beta during heat I often didn’t know I was going at it too hard until it was all over. It seemed a bit counter productive to me, but that was probably mostly because I had to suffer the consequences of it later. As it related to biology, my body wanted to fuck as much as possible to ensure maximum possibility of getting pregnant.

 

Of course, that was if I was even actually fertile to begin with. Whether I was or not, though, my body was determined to follow through, and so I was meant to just take it and take it until I couldn’t anymore, until my heat dissipated and left me alone for a month and a half or two months, whichever it felt like.

 

Castiel still laid beside us, stroking my shoulders and kissing Dean’s arms, supporting us as Beta in whatever way he could. Maybe it was my heat, but I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to take them both at the same time. My sexually fevered thoughts couldn’t stop once they started, and every single scenario that my mind could come up with was now running through it, turning me on more and more as Dean’s thrusts became more urgent and erratic. We reached a fevered pitch together, him thrusting and me bucking against him, moaning and gasping as both of us were driven off the edge together. Mine came first, but only just, and as my orgasm tore through me, he clenched his teeth, thrust several more times, and then buried his knot inside me, stilling through his own climax. It seemed just as intense as the first time, though maybe that was my heat magnifying things. My skin felt as sensitive as a butterfly’s wing, like the barest touch would set off a chain reaction as it tingled and almost burned in a way. My eyes fluttered as tried to catch my breath, swallowing only to find that my mouth was incredibly dry.

 

I almost jumped out of my skin to feel someone shake my shoulder, and I realized it was Castiel. Leaning down, he had donned a robe and had apparently fetched a couple of water bottles for both of us, handing me an open one while he passed one to Dean as well. I gladly took it and drained half in one go, finally able to wet my lips once again. “Thank you,” I mumbled, capping the bottle as I felt more out of it than ever before. This was where I would start to truly descend into my heated state, my mind taken over by base instincts, driven only by need and lust until my heat was over. I was thankful that I had not one but two people to take care of me during this time, as it was hard to remember to eat or even drink while I was in the head space, and I now trusted Dean and Cas enough to keep me hydrated and fed. With any luck, it would pass in a day or two, but until then I was at the mercy of biology’s whims.

 

I had completely fallen asleep with Dean still inside me, not even waking when he repositioned us to he could lie back down. The only time I did wake was when he slipped out of me yet again, but it was only a simple stirring, just an acknowledgement of what had happened and that our positions had changed and then I was back asleep, resting until the next time I would awaken with need.

 

It felt like I had just fallen asleep, but later I would realize that several hours had passed between our second and third session. I felt fairly rested, but only just barely, and for an Omega’s body in heat that was more than enough to kick back into overdrive. Dean was once again there, recognizing that I was almost completely out of it as he turned me over onto my stomach, pressing his own need into me from behind. I moaned loudly as he eased into me, his own need matching mine as he didn’t wait long to set a harder pace. My dreads hung over my face and my arms, splaying across the pillow that my face was half-buried in. His growing knot kept hitting my clit as he pumped in and out of me and I pressed back against him, encouraging him. Fuck, everything was feeling so intense, so heightened, I couldn’t focus on any one thing. This state that I was in, it was what most people thought of when they thought of Omegas, mindless and driven with base instincts and desires, need overcoming even basic functions like the need to drink and eat and be careful with oneself. A person that wasn’t quite on the up and up could take advantage of an Omega in a full-blown heat, and some did. But my Alpha and Beta, they never did. They could have done so much more to me, anything they would have wanted and I would have submitted whether I really wanted to or not. But they didn’t push me, only met what need I put out while accommodating me at every other turn.

 

I felt a hand against mine and I opened my eyes just enough to see that it was Cas. He was here with me, just as he’d promised, and he was letting me know that he was right beside me. I squeezed, an acknowledgement of the promise kept, and he kissed my hand before his lips traveled up my arm and across my back, hitting numerous sensitive spots along the way. My toes curled as I moaned into the pillow, the sensations causing me to leak with even more slick, coating my thighs and Dean’s cock before some of it dripped onto the bed. I felt the light scrape of teeth against a certain spot in the small of my back and my head snapped back as I let out a gasp, my orgasm already teasing. I could practically feel the smile radiating from Cas as he repeated the action again, and then once more and that was all I could take, burying my face in the pillow as I unraveled. Dean’s hips stuttered against my own, not expecting it that quickly even though I was in heat, and he wasn’t quite ready yet. His knot was swelling, but it wasn’t ready yet, and so he rode out my orgasm, flipping me over onto my back once it was over before plunging into me all over again, my left leg propped up on his shoulder to give him better access and depth.

 

My head rolled back onto the pillow, my eyes mostly closed as I gave in to all the sensations that were flooding my senses. They were hitting me one right after the other, not allowing me even a moment’s peace to concentrate on them before they flitted away in favour of something else coming to the forefront. I could feel Dean’s sweat dripping off of his chest and onto mine. Some might have been repulsed by that, even in heat, but I couldn’t help but be even more turned on. His scent and mine filled the room, overcoming everything else. Cas’ was there as well, but it was more like a whisper compared to the yelling that ours was doing. I clawed at Dean’s thighs and arms and what I could of his back, wanting him as close to me as he could be, even closer than he already was, as if that was physically possible.

 

Through my half-lidded eyes, I saw Cas slide up next us, not interrupting us, just there, supporting us as we worked through this leg of my heat. His tender caresses against my neck and cheek were comforting, and I leaned into them, watching as he laid sweet, soft kisses along Dean’s shoulder and upper back. Dean turned toward him and captured his Beta’s lips in a powerful kiss, the Alpha lifted his hand to fist Castiel’s hair, running through it and rumpling it in a way that made me gush with slick. “Fuck,” was all I could mutter as I watched them, experienced lovers feeding off of the other. As my gaze wandered, I realized Castiel was even tending to his own needs, balancing the input of all three of us in a way that was truly magnificent. I moaned as I closed my eyes, unable to take the visual input anymore as my head lolled on the pillow. My wandering right hand rested on Castiel’s thigh, helping to anchor me as much as I could be anchored. Our bond pulsed with life, with emotions and unspoken sentiments, and we all fed off of it, driving each other to climax. I opened my eyes once more just as Dean started gasping, unable to keep kissing Cas as he skirted along the outer edge, threatening to come undone as he pounded into me. My inner muscles contracted just as I reached that edge with him and he pressed his forehead against Cas’ as he pushed one last time, his knot catching just inside me and sending me careening over the edge with him. Likewise, Castiel moaned softly as he stroked himself even harder, taking just a minute or two to reach his own end, spurting over my thigh.

 

I felt like my spirit had temporarily left my body as I laid there, panting, sweating heavily, and sated, even if it was only for the moment. Every touch and sensation was magnified a thousand times, as I felt every little sweat droplet and trickle of fluids. Tears leaked out of my eyes at the intensity, and I blinked a couple of times to clear my vision. When I did, Dean was hovering over me, a worried look on his face. “Are you okay?” When I didn’t respond immediately, as I was unable to immediately process what he was asking, he laid a hand on my cheek and raised his voice just slightly. “Tara? Hey, come on, now, stay with me. Are you okay?”

 

Finally realizing what he was asking, I nodded slowly. “Intense,” I whispered, the only word I was able to vocalize.

 

He nodded in response, realizing that I was pretty far gone in my state. He gently kissed my forehead and pulled me over as he moved onto his side, readjusting my body so we were both comfortable. I couldn’t have fought even if I wanted to, my body completely limp and at the mercy of my Alpha. Before all of this happened, that prospect would have scared me, shook me to my core. But now … now it was a comfort, knowing that I was in good hands, trusted hands, the hands of not only Dean but Castiel as well, who laid down behind me and looped his arms over my waist, pressing a kiss against the base of my neck before he settled. It didn’t take long before we were all asleep, or in a resting state, or whatever applied. This time I never even felt Dean slip out of me, I was far too exhausted to even stir.

 

I awoke after some time, feeling like I hadn’t gotten the rest I needed, but it was all the rest I was going to get for the moment. My days in heat normally passed like this once I got into this state, just blurring together between orgasms until everything was finally over. It felt like somebody had cleaned me up yet again, but whoever it was their work was being undone as I was leaking slick once more. I moaned as I came out of unconsciousness, shifting as I automatically searched for my Alpha but finding his spot beside me bare. I involuntarily whined, my need growing and quickly becoming unbearable, cramps threatening to set in if I wasn’t tended to soon.

 

I felt hands on my shoulder and I turned to see that Cas was still there. “Dean went to …” was all he could get out as I didn’t wait for him to finish, pulling him close to me and pressing my mouth against him, turning my body and shamelessly grinding against him. Later, when I reflected on this, I would cringe at my own wantonness, but biology would not be denied, driving me to mate until this heat was over. I had already lost track of time, and with there being no windows in this room I had no way of tracking time in any fashion, even if it was just a general sense of morning, afternoon, or evening. All that my world was at this moment was sex and heat, pleasure and passion, and that was all I would care about and focus on until it left me.

 

Castiel submitted to my kiss, his own erection pressing against my lower stomach, spurned on by the pheromones I was putting out as a result of my heat. That was the thing about Omegas in heat, the reason why we always had to take time off of work and stay isolated or otherwise only with our partners during it because we would affect everyone around us. If we were to go out in public in the middle of our heat, we would surely inspire an orgy, which most of us would be more than embarrassed about once we came to our senses. There were some Omegas who were just shameless whether they were in heat or not, and they only contributed to the line of thinking that Omegas were just all about sex, but for the majority of us we were only like that in the throes of heat.

 

In no time flat I pulled Castiel on top of me and he was teasing my entrance, and while is Beta cock wasn’t as big as Dean’s, it would definitely satisfy me for the time being. He slid inside me easily, testing my comfortability with a few slow strokes before he captured my lips in a passionate kiss as he pulled my legs fully around his waist, grinding against me as he set a faster pace. We were fully pressed against the other, chest to chest, hips to hips, and our tongues tangled as our bodies succumbed to the most natural dance it knew. His lips soon started mapping my neck and my fingernails dug into his back as he nipped at the sensitive areas he’d previously found, mewling at his ministrations as I bucked against him from beneath. My orgasm hovered yet again, spurred onwards by hormones that I had no choice but to submit to. I gasped and moaned as he rode me, hard and fast and everything I needed at the moment. I was likely leaving scratches on his back, red lines of passion and intensity, but I couldn’t even entertain the thought of holding back and he certainly didn’t seem to mind, moaning softly every time they dug in. Who knew the angel had a scratching kink? That knowledge only drove me onward, more and more as I keened underneath him, my eyes half closed as all higher thought had completely left me. I was reduced to the very thing that I dreaded every time my heat came around, but for the first time I didn’t feel ashamed or dirty or like less of a human. This time, I felt loved, cared for. A tear slipped from my eye as my orgasm bubbled up within me at the realization, the emotion behind the passion leaking through our bond and I pulled Castiel into a kiss as I climaxed, the angel moaning with me as my muscles clenched around him. His hands wandered all over me as he searched for his own end, getting close but not quite there yet. If I was more coherent, I would have pulled him closer and whispered lascivious things until he finished inside me, but I could barely string two words together, much less a full sentence.

 

Suddenly, Dean was back, sliding up behind Cas and grazing his teeth along his shoulder until he got to a specific point, at which he bit down. The angel thrust forward with a cry as he finally emptied himself in me, his hips twitching as his orgasm took him.

 

I whimpered as soon as he pulled out, as even though I’d climaxed I hadn’t been knotted, and that was the crux of being in heat. It wasn’t just fucking, the ultimate end game was knotting, and if that sensation wasn’t accounted for in some way, the fuck itself didn’t matter, like it didn’t count. I clawed at him, even though he couldn’t give me what I needed, my instincts taking over and simply acknowledging that there was a person there and I needed them and they were starting to withdraw from me. Never mind that they were a Beta and he was only moving so my Alpha could take his place, I whined softly, craving what I was missing.

 

Dean didn’t leave me hanging, pulling me close to him as he slipped inside me, bracing himself against the headboard as he started rolling his hips. I was so far gone I couldn’t even open my eyes anymore, surrendering to base desire as the pleasure and the pursuit of it took over. I felt lips and hands all over my body but exactly who they belonged to I didn’t even know. I was riding this wave of ecstasy until it was finished, there was definitely no going back now. Everything felt like it was practically _vibrating_ , even the air around me. Our bond pulsated, our minds completely opened to each other, like a door thrown open. We felt each other’s pleasure, those sensations feeding into our own until it was all one combined orgasm that we experienced together.

 

I passed out almost immediately afterwards, exhaustion taking me and keeping me under. If the others cleaned me up or repositioned me I didn’t know and couldn’t say that I cared. When I woke next they were lucky to get a small amount of food in me before I was pawing at Dean and begging for more. The rest of the night and the next day passed in a complete haze, my memories glossed over like it was all one big event. Kind of like when going out and drinking hard at a bar, after a certain point the night just melds into one big blurry happening and while you might remember one or two points, when they happened and anything else in between draws a blank. As it was, I remembered very little about the rest of my heat, only that at a few points Dean pulled a robe over me and marched me to the bathroom to tend to my other bodily needs that were being ignored, and Castiel continually offering me water and little foods like apple slices, half sandwiches, and protein shakes. While a heat was something I dreaded, this time around I had put my trust in Dean and Cas, and they followed through, taking care of me in every way that I needed. Even besides the soulmate bond fully sealing, it felt like we drew even closer, more intimate. It wasn’t just the sex, it was the intimacy our bond provided. I still didn’t know quite what this life was going to bring, but I was now more confident than ever that it was leading me somewhere good.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of a filler chapter, but I'm still working out a few things in the end game. I know what I want to do, but there are a couple of options for fulfilling it and I have to decide exactly which one I want to go with. So, if the next chapter takes a little while to get out, I'm sorry!

I eased into the steaming bath water with a hiss. It wasn’t overly hot, it was actually at a very comfortable temperature, if not slightly cooler than I would have normally preferred it to be. But I was _amazingly_ sore and tender. After I’d finally come out of my heat-induced haze, after I’d finally gotten enough consecutive rest, I knew I needed to wash and _bad_. I was originally going to take a shower, though I wasn’t sure how my legs would hold out since they still felt a bit like jelly. Dean had advised that there was a private room off to the side of the bathroom where there were several large tubs, likely used for the Men of Letters to soak in after they came out of the field to help ease any injuries or aches and pains.

 

And I sure was aching.

 

I let out a sigh as I was finally able to completely sit and lean back in the tub, sitting sideways a bit but otherwise mostly submerged. Castiel had ran the bath for me and had added some herbal mixture similar to Epsom salts that was supposed to help swelling and inflammation in Omegas after their heat. I had never used them before, since my toy didn’t usually leave me feeling so raw and sore and I’d figured why spend money on something I didn’t really need. But now I was praying to whatever god was real that this helped because _fuck_ I literally could barely fucking walk. _How do Omegas who are with Alphas put up with this every heat?_

 

I wrapped my arms around me under the water, letting my head fall to the side and lean against the cool porcelain of the tub. I always felt slightly feverish once my heat was over, and I supposed it was the after affects of all the surging hormones that had been going crazy inside my body. It felt so nice to relax, finally, truly relax, knowing that another wave wasn’t going to hit, at least not until next heat.

 

To their credit, the herbs did actually seem to help, as I felt the soreness already easing. It wouldn’t go away, not for a little while yet, but this was helping set me firmly on the road to recovery. I dreaded to think how recovery would go if this wasn’t available. I would probably be clutching myself and moaning as I lounged in the tub instead of lying there silent and still and simply enjoying the heated water.

 

I heard a soft knock on the door and in response I called out, “Who is it?”

 

“It’s me, Dean,” came the reply.

 

“Come in.” _Fuck it, he’s seen pretty much everything of me by this point, no reason to feel ashamed or bashful now._ Indeed, considering what I could remember of everything that we did, the positions and the ways we went about it … oh yeah, pretty sure he had memorized every inch of my body, as I had of his and Castiel’s. It was a two way street, after all. Well, three way, if one wanted to get really technical about it.

 

His fingers ghosted over my forehead and I heard his boot scrape as he leaned down to crouch at the side of the tub. “You doin' okay?”

 

I nodded. “Yeah.” I chuckled softly as I added, “A lot better now.”

 

“Good.” He continued to lightly stroke my forehead and I could sense the question in his mind, but I didn’t pry, letting him ask in his own time. Sure enough, after a few more minutes passed, his asked, his voice low, “Is it bad?”

 

“Is what?”

 

“The, uh … the soreness. Is it bad?”

 

It was an otherwise innocuous question, but from the tone in his voice and the emotion behind his word, I could tell he was feeling bad, and likely looking for any chance to self-flaggelate. I sighed as I replied, “Well, it’s the most sore I’ve ever felt in my life. But, then again, I’ve never been with an Alpha at all before, and especially not during a heat.” I looked up at him, wishing that we didn’t have the soulmate bond so that I could lie and tell him I was totally fine so he wouldn’t blame himself. “But, all things considered, I’m doing pretty damn good.”

 

He nodded, accepting my honest answer. I wished there was something else I could say, something I could tell him to ease the doubts in his mind, the guilt he felt. It wasn’t his fault, this was just the way Alphas and Omegas were, this was how it went when we either went into a heat or a rut. We were made to take it, to withstand it, and we could, even if we were sore later.

 

Speaking of, I cleared my throat a little and asked, “What about you?”

 

He shifted his stance slightly on the floor as he replied, “Yeah, little sore, sure.” He was hurting more than he let on, but I didn’t push him, letting him be. Even with the almost excess lubrication that came with heats, Alphas didn’t escape them unscathed, either. There was only so many times you could go at it in a certain short period of time without your junk getting sore, no matter what exact equipment you were packing. But hey, at least my heats didn’t last a full week or even longer, like some Omegas.

 

If that was the case, we would all be well and truly fucked, in every sense of the word.

 

After the water cooled, Dean was still sitting there, and he helped me get out of the tub since my legs still felt a bit weak and I didn’t really want to risk slipping and falling and hurting myself even further. I winced as I thought about how it would feel to land on a sore crotch, glad that my Alpha was with me. As I reflected on it later, I figured that was probably exactly what he was there for, to look after me and help me in any way that I needed. For such an intimidating Alpha, he could be real sweet at times.

 

Lunch was a light and quick affair, after which I immediately retired back to bed to continue sleeping off some of the soreness. Dean joined me, still trying to make up for his own sleep deficit, and Cas did as well, though he had no intentions of resting, just lying with us. Even though there was plenty of room in the bed, we all ended up in the middle, all over each other. I was smack dab in between the Alpha and Beta, curled into Dean’s chest with Castiel’s chest pressed against my back. The slight pressure felt amazing and I was dead asleep seemingly within seconds. If I’d thought that I had slept hard in the car on the way here, or in my first nap in the bunker, that was nothing compared to this. It was the kind of sleep where it felt like I’d just up and died, not dreaming and just completely unaware of everything around me.

 

It took Dean and I a couple more days to fully recover - him a little quicker than me - but even though none of us in the triad were physically intimate, we were intimate in other ways. Whenever we laid down together, we left our bond open, mentally caressing the others and leaving ourselves vulnerable and exposed. It was so strange, especially since we rarely even spoke during those times, but they were the moments I treasured the most. I’d never gotten to be this open and honest and downright vulnerable in a relationship before, and while occasionally it scared me, I reveled in it as well. I suppose my whole life was strange now, so this was just my new normal. Still some adjusting to do here and there, but I was settling in much better.

 

About a week after my heat, we had settled into a bit of, dare I say, a domestic rhythm. I was usually the first one up, and if I beat Gabriel to the kitchen then I’d make a large pot of coffee. Fix two cups for both myself and Dean and amble on back to the room where he would be waking up with Cas. These days, we let either Sam or Gabriel handle breakfast because Eileen was experiencing some pretty severe food aversions and we didn’t want to make her even sicker in the morning than she already was. As long as she got some food in her and kept up a steady enough stream of lemon flavoured beverages or candies, she was usually pretty much back to normal by lunch, which was usually light and simple anyway. Dean and Cas and I handled dinner, and while we went along if Eileen was having any cravings or aversions, we otherwise did what we did best. Just simple but delicious and filling meals like one could probably expect from any old Americana style diner. Anything from lasagna to meatloaf to burgers to spaghetti and meatballs to random casseroles we just chucked everything in. I had always liked to experiment a little with my own personal cooking, and my Alpha and I meshed well while we cooked. Castiel was much more apt to just follow a recipe, but Dean and I? We liked to fly by the seat of our pants and just make food. It always seemed so much better that way.

 

They hadn’t gotten any calls about hunting jobs after the last call, which had turned out to be a werewolf pack that was larger than anticipated, hence the panic as Sam and Dean had gotten themselves ambushed and surrounded. They still advised other hunters but other than that hadn’t been requested to join anyone on an actual hunt. After another week and a half of this, Dean was starting to get antsy, I could tell. From what he’d told me, he’d been transient most of his life, and while I was used to having a secure home base and not traveling, he was probably equally as used to driving around, never staying in one place for too long, scoping out hotels and short-term apartments to hole up in until he needed to move on again. He’d seen so much of this country already, and I was only just now getting out of the Northwoods. That was why I was both surprised and not surprised when he approached me about taking a trip.

 

“Where to?” I asked.

 

“Well, I was thinking that, you know … you might wanna go back to Menomonie for a little bit.”

 

I raised my eyebrows, a little taken aback by his suggestion. “You want to go back there? Why?”

 

His lips quirked in that signature crooked half of a grin as he said, “Well, to me, it doesn’t much matter where I go, I just need to _get out_ for a little bit, if you know what I mean. But you said you’d never really left there before now, I figured you might be missing it.”

 

He was right, I couldn’t say he wasn’t. And though I was a little surprised he was wanting to take me back there so soon, I wasn’t about to say no. “When do you wanna go?”

 

He shrugged as he bit his lip. “Was thinking we could leave tomorrow night, if you want.”

 

I returned his smile. “Sounds like a plan to me, Alpha.”

 

His grin turned into a full-fledged smile at my reply. He would get to get out and take a little trip, calm that wanderlust of his, and I would get to go home and visit my friends and my family, something I wasn’t sure if I would have ever been able to do once I left. I had kept in contact, sure, but texting and phone calls wasn’t quite the same thing as physically hanging out and spending time with people. It really benefitted everyone, so why not? As I started going through my things that night and figuring on what I should pack, I started daydreaming on what we could do while we were there. Menomonie wasn’t a large town, but it was beautiful to me and there was plenty of nice spots to hang out at and just chill, which was what my friends and I normally did. Maybe I could even sneak over and see Ellen, check on how she was doing. Communication with her over the phone had been sparse, as it always was, since she didn’t have reliable access to a phone and had to be very careful about what was done and said on it or else Devin would go into one of his rages.

 

That night, I fell asleep with a smile on my face. Maybe I really could have it all, maybe that was still possible, if only a little different from what I would have thought it would be. But hey, life was full of surprises, right?

 

If only I’d known how true that sentiment was.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, after going back and forth with my husband the different options I had for the remaining plot points of this story, I figured it out and was able to bang out this chapter. There should be a total of two or three chapters left after this, I'm not exactly sure yet, it all just depends on how it comes out, writing-wise. Enjoy!

Dean really enjoyed night driving when it came to taking trips, and to be honest I couldn’t blame him. The roads were pretty much wide open, hardly another driver in sight. It was just Dean at the wheel, me in the passenger’s seat, Cas in the back, classic rock blasting on the radio, and the wide open road. I had to admit, there was a certain charm to a road trip, and whenever I wasn’t napping I was just watching the scenery fly by while listening to bands like Foreigner and AC/DC and Black Sabbath. Listening to the rifting guitars and the unique voices sing familiar songs made the time race by, and before I knew it we were driving through the Twin Cities again, getting close to the last highway change that would take us to Menomonie. Since I was riding up front, Dean and I could simply reach for the other when we needed to, and we spent the whole of the last stretch with our fingers intwined, even as we looked in opposite directions.

 

It was certainly a far cry from the trip going in the opposite direction.

 

When we finally arrived back in town, I felt like my heart sang to see the familiar sight, and I couldn’t help the goofy wide grin that spread across my face. I was back! I hadn’t been sure if I would ever see this place again, but here it was, vast and beautiful in its own, small-town way. What can I say, there was just a charm about the place. Of course, it could have just been because I grew up here, so obviously I was attached to it. There were hundreds if not thousands of little towns dotted around the northern part of the state that were more or less the same. But this place held my family and my friends, familiar haunts and old memories gathered over a lifetime. While I was forging a new life for myself in a bunker in Kansas, this would always hold a special place in my heart.

 

Dean went with a local recommendation for some food and so we stopped and grubbed at a spot called The Acoustic Cafe. It was one of my favourite places to stop in for a coffee or a tea and their food was delicious. I went with my usual salami hoagie with beer cheese soup, while Dean opted for a roast beef version and, to my surprise, Castiel ordered a vegetarian soup.

 

Once the order was put in, I half-whispered to Cas, “I thought you didn’t eat?”

 

He shrugged. “I _can_ eat, if I want, and it helps allay suspicion when I come to restaurants. Otherwise, it would look odd if I came in and didn’t eat.”

 

I supposed that was true, and sure enough he did eat most of the soup while Dean and I chowed down on the sandwiches. I literally moaned as I took my first bite, having forgotten just how good this place was. It had been a couple of months since I’d eaten there _before_ Dean and I had bonded, and so of course it was one of the first places I wanted to return to.Dean had to agree, the food was really good, and the atmosphere was great as we sat and ate. Just very casual and down to earth, almost like you were eating over at a friend’s house.

 

After we’d grabbed lunch, I gave Dean directions on how to get to my parent’s house, a nice little cozy two-story abode within a short driving distance to UW Stout, which was where my mother worked. After the trip was decided on, I’d excitedly called my dad and told him I was coming up. He was equally as excited to see me, and said that since the weather was actually due to be mild that weekend in the mid to upper 40’s, he’d proposed a family dinner and cookout. Some undoubtedly thought it odd to grill with there still being snow on the ground, but as Wisconsinites we’d gotten used to it. As long as the weather was relatively decent and part-way warm-ish, any old excuse for a cookout was a good one. Of course, they were due to get some more snow the next week, so our trip was fortuitously well-timed.

 

My mother greeted us warmly at the door, smiling as we embraced before offering her hand to Dean and Cas, who both shook her hand politely in turn. I felt a bit nervous introducing them to everybody, but they were on their best behaviour. I should have known, as part of hunting involved working with locals at times so they had to be charming, to a certain degree. At the same time, though, they didn’t come off as fake. Dean was slightly more uptight than he normally was, but I could sense it was more due to nervousness on his part than the desire to present a false front. I did what I could to send a soothing calm to him through our bond, and I saw his eyes flick over to me and just the hint of a smile tease his lips.

 

Dad was in the kitchen, prepping some food, and I gave him a big hug, squeezing him tight. He gave my cheek a kiss as I let him go, and he took a step back to take a good look at me. “Dad, it’s only been like a month and a half,” I good-naturedly chided.

 

He shook his head. “Just seems longer than that to me,” he remarked before looking past me to see Dean and Cas standing there. “It’s nice to see you two again.”

 

“You as well,” Dean replied, stepping forward to shake his hand, Cas repeating the action after Dean had done so.

 

“Thank you so much for bringing my daughter back for a visit,” Dad said as he went back to cutting up potatoes. “From how urgently you all left, I was concerned it would be much longer until I saw her next.”

 

“Well, it’s been a bit quiet on the home front, so we all weighed the risks and decided we might as well make the trip while we could.” He gave an apologetic half smile, and my father returned it, understanding and thankful.

 

“Whatever the reason, I’m glad you’re here.” Dad turned back to me before he asked, “You wanna help me out? I’m starting the potatoes for the potato salad in a minute but I need vegetables chopped up for the coleslaw.”

 

“Sure, Dad,” I replied, grabbing a cutting board and a nearby knife. “Hey, Dean, can you grab the cabbage and carrots from the refrigerator? There should be purple and green cabbage in there.” I asked, since he was on the other side of the kitchen, nearest to it, and I would have otherwise had to navigate around my father and what he was doing.

 

He nodded and opened it up, searching for a few minutes before he remarked, “I see a bag of carrots here, but no cabbage in sight.”

 

“Dad, did you forget to get cabbage?” I teased, stepping around him to double check and make sure he hadn’t inadvertently hidden it. Dad was good for that, sticking things in weird places and then completely forgetting about it.

 

“Hmm, I was pretty sure I picked some up at the store a couple of weeks ago,” he said slowly, as if he was thinking back on it.

 

Mom entered the kitchen right as we were talking about it and asked, “Was that the same cabbage you used for soup earlier this week?”

 

Dad snapped his fingers as he remembered, laughing. “Well that explains that. I guess we won’t have any coleslaw, then.”

 

“Nonsense,” Mom tutted. “I needed to make a run to the store, anyway, We’ll pick some up.” Turning toward my Beta she asked, “Cas, would you be a dear and accompany me? I could use a hand.”

 

“Of course,” the angel replied politely, turning to give both Dean and I a kiss on the cheek.

 

“We won’t take long,” Mom promised, picking up her purse. “Gordy’s is having a nice sale on meat starting today, so I wanted to wait until now to buy.”

 

Despite having a pretty nice, cush job at UW Stout, my mother was a super saver. She wasn’t one of those annoying couponers who took things too far, but she watched sales ads like a hawk and was always stocking up once things went on sale and not a moment before. I suppose it was an ingrained habit now, picked up from when Dad quit his job to stay home with my sister, and later me, while my mother continued to work. Their income had been effectively halved, and so she had to make do, and make do she certainly did.

 

So, instead of started the prep for the coleslaw, Dean and Dad and I sat around the kitchen having a beer and just hanging out. Whether it was the small bit of alcohol or the ease that Dad put every at, Dean started to unwind a little bit as his comfortability level grew. Of course, my father was also great at putting people at ease, with his warm, gentle manner and easy-going attitude, he was quick to pick up the conversation when the other person wavered and always laughing at something or another. He wasn’t as much a social butterfly as my mother, but he shone best in small groups where he could focus on a few people at a time.

 

As we stood around the kitchen, watching the potatoes and eggs boil as we couldn’t do anything else at the moment, the doorbell rang once again. “Ah, that’s probably Ellen and Devin,” my father remarked.

 

At that, Dean pushed himself up from the counter that he’d been leaning against. “I’ll go get it, don’t worry about it,” he said with a smile, but beneath that smile was a hint of danger. My father didn’t see it, indeed anyone who didn’t know Dean likely didn’t see it. But because we were bonded I felt that thin thread of emotions curl around him, the core of it anger. I was a little surprised at the seeming intensity of it - I mean, sure, nobody in their right mind doesn’t dislike an abusive, manipulative bastard - but I later that Dean must have resented Devin at some level since it was because of him that it had taken us so long to come together, so long for me to finally fully put my trust in him.

 

I couldn’t quite hear their short conversation from the doorway, but I could tell that Dean’s politeness was noticeably strained, like it was taking everything within him to not punch the guy. And the fact that they were both Alphas likely meant that both of their hackles were up, figuratively speaking. It wasn’t long before the door closed and footsteps traced back to the kitchen, the first person popping into view being my sweet sister, whom I immediately ran and hugged fiercely. She seemed skinnier than the last time I saw her, though maybe that was just because her clothes were baggy on her. Her ash blond hair was long and straight and loose, reminiscent more of our mother than our father, whose hair was naturally platinum blond and curly, just like mine had been before I put it in dreads. It felt good to see her again, even better than I’d thought it would, and we kept each other close even when we parted.

 

As we did so, I realized that someone was noticeably absent. Not that I was complaining, but I still had to ask, “Where’s Devin?”

 

“Said he had a ‘work thing’,” Dean said curtly.

 

“Work? On a Saturday?”

 

“He’s been picking up a lot of extra work, lately,” Ellen interjected. “He said he would come as soon as he could.”

 

I nodded but said nothing more about it. Ellen was so used to excusing him for his rudeness and odd behaviour I just brushed it off. In the past I’d try to press her, try to get her to see his lies for what they were, but I eventually gave up and simply let it go. Forcing the issue only created tension between us, and I didn’t want to push her away and not come to me if she needed someone. So I just bit my tongue and supported her however she needed me to. It was all I could really do.

 

So nothing more was said of it, Ellen was simply handed a beer as I drained the potatoes and handed her the hard-boiled eggs to peel. Not long after Ellen arrived, Mom and Cas returned from the grocery store, both with armloads of bags in tow. I gave the sweet Beta a kiss before I relieved him of a few and started putting things away, fishing out the cabbage I needed as I did so. The coleslaw was just as simple as chopping everything up and mixing it with the dressing before covering it and setting it in the fridge to chill. Ellen handled the potato salad while Dad enlisted Dean to help him start making up some burgers. That was one thing Dean definitely could do, and they got into an in-depth discussion into what makes up an essential burger.

 

Ellen rolled her eyes as she glanced at me. “You found someone to talk food with Dad, eh? Hoo boy, we could be here all night …”

 

We both laughed as we casually drank a second beer, each, Mom joining us in the kitchen to start prepping the chicken. We would have helped, but she was very particular about how it was prepared and cooked - citing a family recipe of some kind - so we left her to it. She always said she would show us one day, but today was not that day, and to be honest I was still pretty tired from the long drive up so I wasn’t complaining.

 

Once all the meat was finally ready, Dad went out to start up the charcoal for the grill. Mom had tried several times over the years to get him to buy a gas grill, but he would hear nothing of it, citing the nice taste that charcoal left. I definitely had to side with him, as even though it was more work, the end result was well worth it, as we later got to find out once everything was done. Castiel even graciously took a plate, to put off any suspicion, but he was the only one that didn’t go back for seconds. Afterward, we were all stuffed, barely able to take another bite … until Dad pulled out a strawberry rhubarb cobbler, and then we were all drooling again. Even Dean, who was usually a pie aficionado, couldn’t help the small moan that escaped once he put that first bite in his mouth.

 

Later, once the food had digested a little and we were about ready to call it a night, Dean took us over to the Best Western. My parents had offered to let us stay at the house, but in case we wanted to get a little lovin’ in, I didn’t want there to be any awkwardness. As we pulled in, Dean pointed out the Perkins nearby and said, “Hey! Solid breakfast nearby, I love it.”

 

I chuckled at him and out of the corner of my eye I saw Castiel’s hint of a smile on his face. When Dean was comfortable with those around him, he was open and passionate about so many things, food definitely being one of them. And I couldn’t fault him. I mean, hey, food was good. Who doesn’t like food? There was just a passion and a zest for life in Dean that, most times it seemed, was buried under the weight of his job as a hunter. Sometimes, though … sometimes it shone through.

 

Like when he was excited at the prospect of pancakes for breakfast.

 

Our check-in went seamlessly and sooner rather than later we were unloading our things into the room. It was pretty nice, as far as mid-line hotels went, and even came with a microwave, a mini-fridge, and a small coffee machine along with a few small serving packets of coffee and some bags of tea and cocoa mix. As soon as we got in, Dean smacked his forehead and exclaimed, “Fuck, I forgot to check for an ice machine.”

 

“I’ll go get some,” I volunteered, grabbing the bucket as I laughed. “This isn’t my first time here, I remember _exactly_ where it is, and it’s a little weird where they put it.” Of course, I didn’t mention that the actual first time I’d been at the hotel had been after prom, and most of my friends had been so drunk they’d begged me, the most sober of the group, to go get ice and I had subsequently spent what felt like hours wandering around the hotel trying to find it. Once I finally did, I vowed I would never forget where it was, and to my credit I hadn’t.

 

Dean pulled me into a kiss as I passed him on the way to the door. “Hurry back, now, I think I’m up for working off some dinner.”

 

I grinned and bit my lip slyly. “Wouldn’t dream of holding you up,” I said with a wink, sauntering out the door.

 

Our room was on the second floor and the ice machine was all the way down on the first floor, by the pool area. Since I knew that, the longest part was really just the trip itself, especially because it was on the opposite end from where we were staying. That was fine with me, though, it meant that any noisy pool-goers wouldn’t be yelling and running around by our room. There wasn’t much that would bring out rowdiness around here aside from Packer games, but an indoor pool that was heated year-round was a sure fire way to do it. I smirked as I saw a group of kids running past me and toward the glass door that separated the pool from the rest of the hotel, their mother yelling after them to wait up. Sometimes, it didn’t seem all that long ago that I was one of those rambunctious kids, tearing around Menomonie with my friends like we owned the place. Now, after all this time, everything was different, both for the better and for the worse. But I currently couldn’t complain for much.

 

As I set the bucket down in the machine and pressed the button, I heard footsteps behind me. “I’ll be done in just a second,” I assured, but I didn’t get an answer. Instead, all I felt was a sharp pain in the back of my head, and then the dark depths of unconsciousness.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I managed to get this finished up today, so I hope the wait wasn't too horrible. :)

My next memories were a bit hazy, almost as if they were part of a dream. I heard a car’s engine and the gentle shifting that usually indicated driving, but when I opened my eyes everything around me just looked black. I had a raging headache radiating from the back of my head and I suppressed a pained moan as I tried to shift slightly. I found I couldn’t move much, however, as it felt like my wrists and my ankles had been tied together. It felt like hard work to keep myself conscious, and though I vaguely felt a sense of alarm coming toward me through my bond, even that wasn’t enough to keep me awake.

 

The next time I was roused from consciousness it was because I was jolted awake, rolling and falling a short distance. My still addled brain was scrambling trying to catch up, and a tell-tale slamming sound seemed to anchor me for just a moment. It was a car door shutting, and I realized I must have been lying on a row of seats and fallen to the floor when the vehicle stopped. Where was I? Who had me? And why? I didn’t get much of a chance to ponder those questions as I heard another car door open, this time by my feet.

 

Mumbled curses was the only thing I heard as rough hands pulled at my body and wrangled me out of the car. I realized the reason everything was black is because there was a hood over my head. I struggled against whoever had me, but it was a futile struggle as whoever had me was a whole helluva lot stronger than I was, hauling me up on their shoulder and holding me there with a bone-crushing grip. With every step they took, it felt like their shoulder was impaling me, it felt so sharp, and tensing my stomach muscles did little to relieve the discomfort. I simply had to hope that wherever they were taking me wasn’t very far away. As they walked, I felt a concerned alarm once again trying to reach me through my soulmate bond. It was Cas and Dean, trying desperately to make sure that I was okay. Obviously they’d noticed that I had gone missing by now, and I did my best to respond to them through our bond, assuring them that I was at least alive. There was a small amount of relief sent in response, then a sense of question. I returned it in same, not knowing where I was or who had me, and from that Dean sent me a calm confidence. He was coming for me. I just needed to wait and not panic in the meantime.

 

Which, of course, was easier said than done.

 

Based on the footsteps of whoever it was that had me, I could deduce a couple of things about my surroundings. I initially heard the crunch of gravel, so we were either on a dirt road or driveway. Then, it felt like we were going up a few stairs and from the way the steps dully thudded, it sounded like wood. Two doors opened and closed one right after the other, the first one squeaking slightly. _Screen door_. Then we traversed across a similar surface that dully thudded, so either wood or some sort of vinyl flooring. We didn’t go far when we paused for a moment as a key jiggled in a lock, and once that door was opened it felt like we started descending. _Basement?_ It did feel cooler, and I was glad I had still been wearing my light jacket from earlier when I’d gone to fetch ice because who knew how long I would end up staying down here. I hoped not very long …

 

There was a clinking, metallic sound that I couldn’t identify before I was unceremoniously dumped on a cold, hard, concrete floor. Cool, sharp metal slid between my hands before jerking outwards, cutting my hard plastic bonds quickly and efficiently. Th same was done to my feet before a deep voice said, “Don’t even think about escaping.” My hood was suddenly ripped off before the perpetrator quickly moved back, the metallic clanging echoing in the enclosed space before footsteps retreated back up the stairs.

 

I had to blink several times before my eyes adjusted to the harsh lighting, but after everything came into focus, I gasped to see that I wasn’t alone. Huddling in the corner of what I now saw was a chain-link cage was Ellen, shivering as her arms were wrapped around her tiny body. She was dressed only in jeans and a tank top and didn’t even have on any socks or shoes. “Ellen,” I whispered as I slowly sat up, mindful of the dizzy feeling that I was still experiencing. She looked up at me and I saw then that her eyes were rimmed red and puffy, as if she’d been crying for a while now. “What happened?” I asked, shedding my coat and pulling it around her. I may have been the younger sister by a couple of years, but I always felt like the older sibling, taking care of and supporting Ellen.

 

Tears pooled in her eyes as she shakily whispered, “I don’t know. Devin, he’s … he’s gone off the deep end. Ever since the dinner earlier tonight … he seemed to be okay with it but then once we got there he shut down and immediately left, and even when he picked me up he was quiet, wasn’t saying much of anything. Then when we got home it was like he just exploded, started yelling nonsense and dragged me down here and left. The only other time I’ve seen him was when he came in with you and then left.”

 

“Wait, that was Devin?” Granted, I had never had much faith in my brother-in-law, but kidnapping wasn’t really something I would have considered him capable of. He usually stuck to torturing my sister in various ways, from all other outward appearance he seemed completely normal and perfectly sane. Maintaining his mask had always been very important to him, as the few times he’d physically assaulted Ellen he’d kept her under lock and key until her bruises had faded or was otherwise easy to cover up with makeup. But this … this meant he had not only taken off that mask, but he’d chucked it in the garbage pile and lit in on fire.

 

Ellen nodded, sobbing softly as she pulled my jacket around her tighter. My long-sleeved shirt was thin, but I didn’t care. I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her to my chest as I whispered, “Don’t worry, Dean and Cas will find us.” I could sense their determination through our bond, coloured with worry and concern. I sent back a calm reassurance. _I’m okay. Focus on what you need to._ This was the first time that I wished that the soulmate bond was telepathic and not just empathic, but at least it was there regardless. It would also help to track me, but surely Devin knew that already? Unless …

 

Unless that was part of his twisted plan. Unless he was only using me for bait. But why? He had only just met Dean and he hadn’t met Cas at all, what could he possibly have against them? He’d never really looked at me twice, the only times he’d ever really acknowledged me was when I was standing up for Ellen or otherwise supporting her. Other than that I barely even dinged his radar. So why was my soulmates suddenly interesting? Why now was this interesting? Maybe he had just finally snapped and gone off on some psychotic break. Who knew, really. I certainly never tried to figure out his twisted motivations.

 

There was no clock in the basement, and of course I didn’t have my phone on me, so I had no real concept of time or its passage. I hated to think how Ellen might have been put in this exact position before, simply waiting out some arbitrary sentence, wondering how long it would be until she was released. She was shaking already, but not from the chill in the air, and I similarly felt a familiar dreaded tingle start to spread over my body, starting in my spine and wandering down my bones until it settled in. Ordinarily, I might have lasted longer before the pain settled in, but the stress of the situation sped up the process until both Ellen and I were shaking from the pain, our teeth chattering no matter how much we tried to suppress it. We huddled together there, on the cold floor, clinging to each other as we did the only thing we could do in the situation.

 

Wait.

 

How long we stayed down there, at the time I couldn’t have said. It easily felt like hours, but time in situations like that could be deceptive. Of course, I found out later that it was really only a few hours since I’d been taken from the hotel that Dean and Cas tracked me down to the basement of Devin’s house, but of course it felt like much longer actually living it out. Ellen and I both jumped as we heard a loud bang upstairs, followed by heavy footsteps traversing the house. Ellen started crying, worried about who it was now, but I knew who it was, I could feel them. A sense of relief flooded me as we connected through our bond, and after they presumably covered the whole house I heard the basement door jiggling. Of course Devin hadn’t left it unlocked, but it wasn’t a hard feat for a hunter and an angel to break it down, and it wasn’t but a few minutes later that they were both descending the stairs.

 

As soon as I saw them, I scooted over toward the edge of the cage, unable to move quite as well as I could have because of the arcing pain that was shooting through my limbs like lightening. Dean’s expression was clouded in concern as hestepped toward us, holding a gun still firmly in his hand. He didn’t quite make it to the cage, however, as just as Dean and Cas neared us, Devin suddenly _jumped_ down the stairs, making them turn around and raise their weapons. The sly grin on Devin’s face made my stomach twist as I backed away from the edge of the cage, unsure of what he was planning but pretty sure I wanted to put as much space between us as possible.

 

He chuckled darkly as he commented, “You really think I would just let you in here?”

 

Dean had his gun trained on him as he replied curtly, “The thought had crossed my mind how relatively easy it was to find this place, to find Tara.”

 

Devin snorted. “She was merely a means to an end. I really wanted _you two_ , but …” his grin became downright unsettling as his eyes flicked over to me, “… she might make a delicious dessert once I’m done.” As if his words weren’t enough to turn my stomach, the way he licked his lips and teeth certainly did the job. Quicker than my eyes could track, he pulled out a lighter, flicked it on, and tossed it at the ground near their feet. A ring of fire instantly erupted and while Dean quickly jumped out of the way, Cas wasn’t fast enough and was trapped in a large ring of fire. Dean shucked his jacket to use but Devin had pulled a gun out from the waistband of his jeans. “Uh uh uhhhhhh,” he cautioned, my heart clenching as he pointed the gun right at Dean.

 

The Alpha was non-plussed by the action, chuckling as he asked, “You really think that’s the first time I’ve had a weapon in my face?”

 

A dangerous smile, and then, “No.” At that point, Devin shifted the gun from Dean to the cage, where Ellen and I were huddled.

 

Dean’s stance immediately changed, his face hardening as his Alpha side bristled. “Who the hell are you and what do you want.”

 

“You killed our leader - _my_ leader - left us rudderless and without direction. And we were close, _so close_ , to taking this world back as ours and you _ruined_ it all!” His unsettling smile grew as he added, “Oh, you also killed me, too. Or, tried to, at least. But, as you know, we Leviathan are quite resilient. I survived, retreated, licked my wounds as I plotted revenge. I didn’t expect to soulmate bond with anyone, but she’s proven a nice little distraction. Of course, how could I know that her sister would bond with the very Alpha and Beta that I wanted to take down?” He laughed menacingly. “And now I have you both exactly where I want you, at _my_ mercy.” Dean only sucked on his teeth and smirked, which seemed to anger Devin as he asked darkly, “ _What_?”

 

“Well, it’s just funny that you didn’t think we’d know this was a trap of some kind, or that we even didn’t know what you were.” His smirk grew wider as he said, “Cas recognized you in the security video at the hotel, which is why I’m guessing you booked it from the house once you met me, didn’t want to risk your former vessel seeing you for what you were.”

 

“And yet you still walked in here, so what’s your point?” Devin asked, his grip tightening around the gun, making my heart beat a mile a minute as the agitation practically rolled off of him.

 

“Just like there’s more than one way to skin a cat, there’s more than one way to permanently kill a Leviathan.”

 

Devin laughed outright. “The only archangels that aren’t dead are locked in the Cage in Hell, and even if they weren’t I doubt they would be willing to help you.”

 

“And that’s where you’re wrong,” Dean said, glancing over at the trapped angel. “Cas?”

 

“He’s already been called,” Castiel replied evenly, and sure enough a moment later, Gabriel was standing behind Devin.

 

Devin whirled around and blanched as he saw the archangel standing there. “No, that can’t be. You _died_! I was told Lucifer himself did you in!”

 

Gabriel shrugged nonchalantly, twirling his blade as he straightened up. Like before with Castiel, he seemed to glow as the outline of three sets of wings was cast against the wall of the basement. When he spoke, it wasn’t the same jovial tone that I’d known, but a deep, powerful, reverberating voice that felt like it sounded through my chest as he said, “Anyone who’s human might want to close their eyes.”

 

I pulled Ellen into my chest as I squeezed my eyes shut, brilliant light brighter than I ever thought possible shining through the basement, like it was trying to cleanse the whole place of any speck of darkness. I heard a shrill, high-pitched, animalistic scream and a thick, almost viscous-like fluid hit the floor. I swallowed hard as I held my sister tight, simply waiting until it was all over.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, just a few notes, to clear up any confusion. :)
> 
> 1) Leviathans. Crowley himself said that after Dick was killed, they disbanded. Since we haven't heard from them again in canon, I assume they are lying low. Either way, Leviathans are still out there in the SPN world. The only one legit killed (that I know of) was Dick Roman himself.
> 
> This leads to 2) Devin. In the Talmud, it's said that Gabriel will kill the Leviathan, so since the boys don't have that special weapon anymore, I take it to mean that Gabe can do the job for good. Archangel grace + archangel blade = dead Leviathan.
> 
> And, finally, 3) this chapter is officially the penultimate chapter. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to include everything but I seemed to reach a natural stopping point, so there will be one more chapter. :) I hope the conclusion is worth it for y'all!

I kept my eyes squeezed shut even after the light vanished, not wanting to take any chances. Though I wasn’t sure what would have happened if I had opened my eyes earlier, I didn’t want to take that chance. I didn’t even move until I heard the chains on the outside of the cage rattling as the padlock was bashed open and pulled off and the door opened. At that moment, I finally looked up and saw Dean making a beeline straight for me. I let go of my sister, who was now looking around curiously, and Dean immediately went in for a kiss. As soon as our lips connected, I shuddered, the pain finally starting to ease as I touched my Alpha. When we parted, he asked, “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

 

“Just my head, but that’s all.”

 

“Let me see,” he implored, and I scooted around so he could get a look at the back of my head, his hand still on mine to provide continuous touch so that relief wouldn’t go away. He gently carded through my dreads, looking for anything nasty on my scalp, and I hissed and winced a little as his fingers brushed over a sensitive spot. “Yeah, I see it. Looks like you got a nice little egg back here, but that’s it, no bleeding or anything. Can you follow my finger for me?”

 

I almost rolled my eyes but dutifully did whatever he wanted me to do. He was just trying to look out for me, and if he was in the same position I probably would have been done the same thing.

 

Seemingly satisfied, he said, “If you have a concussion, it’s a mild one, nothing to worry about.” He smiled and winked but I could feel the flood of relief coming from him. He had been dreading far worse, I could tell, had been setting himself up to prepare for a poorer outcome, and the fact that he no longer had to face a worse reality was setting in and setting in hard. I could almost feel his pounding heart as if it was my own, all of his worry and anxiety slowly melting away as he saw with his own eyes that I was fine.

 

Castiel, however, I could tell was still anxious about something. As Dean helped me stand up, I could more clearly see the angel and the way he was … _twitching_. Even without our soulmate bond, it was clear that something was getting to him. It really seemed out of the ordinary for him, and it prompted me to ask, “Castiel? Is something wrong?”

 

He sighed and bit his lip before looking me in the eyes, as if he was internally debating something. I could feel the conflict in him, but I wanted him to tell me what was going on. Dean was picking up on it as well, but the man simply laid an arm around my shoulder as we waited on Cas to spill whatever was going through his mind. Dean knew from experience - experience that I leaned on - that Cas would tell us what was wrong, we just needed to wait and not push him, let him come to it on his own terms. To be honest, I wanted to shake him and beg him to tell me, but I resisted, simply standing next to Dean and waiting yet again. The angel ran a hand through his otherwise neat hair as he said, “I need to check, I need to know …”

 

“Know what, Castiel?” I asked, truly puzzled at what was driving him so batty. I could feel his Beta rising in him, moving him to say or do something that he was otherwise hesitant to do. “It’s okay, Cas, whatever it is you need to know, I’ll help you if I can.”

 

He looked at me with what could only be described as a puppy dog face as he said, “It’s the baby, Tara.”

 

I was dumbfounded for a second, blinking as I wondered if I heard him correctly. “Baby?”

 

“You conceived during your heat, I knew it the moment it happened. I had wanted to wait until you found out on your own, but … with everything that’s happened, I just … I need to know if the baby is okay or if …”

 

I felt the beginnings of tears sting my eyes. This was just completely unexpected and out of the blue. I had been expecting to have to use fertility treatments just to be able to conceive … that is, if Dean and I decided we even wanted children together! Did we want children? We hadn’t even talked about it at all. Hell we’d only just gotten close, only fully sealed our bond not too long ago, and now we were going to be parents? Possibly? That is, if the stress from being removed from my soulmate bonded Alpha hadn’t already caused me to miscarry, which was a very real threat. Without at least a Beta’s touch, soulmate bonded Omegas miscarried more often than not when removed from all touch. Even the short amount of time we had been separated could have been enough for my body to reject it, choosing to sustain itself only over both itself and a child.

 

I nodded slowly, and Castiel approached me, his hand held out. I couldn’t even bring myself to look at Dean as I held my breath, Cas’ hand enveloping my lower stomach. Where he touched me it felt warm, not burning hot, just a gentle heat. It spread throughout my whole lower region and my heart fluttered in my chest with anxiety. What was he going to find? And would I be okay with whatever the outcome was? I spent what felt like an eternity with my eyes locked with his, holding my breath, waiting to find out …

 

He finally withdrew his hand and just the hint of a smile teased the edges of his mouth. “The baby’s fine. Going strong, still.”

 

I let out the breath I had been holding and only then did I chance a look at Dean, new worries suddenly replacing the old ones. Did he even want this? Was he going to be angry that I asked him to take care of me during my heat that lead to this? Would be want to have an abortion and wait until later to have kids? Or possibly never? I was now regretting everything in the way our relationship had played out so far. If my head hadn’t been so far up my own ass we could have sat down and talked about the future like adults. Instead I had pushed him away until Castiel had helped me see come to terms with it. If this wasn’t what he really wanted, I didn’t know how I was going to deal with forcing the situation on us.

 

The way he was looking at me alone seemed to give me an answer, tears pooling in his bright green eyes, one falling as he pulled me close to him, settling his forehead against mine. Grinning like an idiot he whispered, “We’re gonna be parents.”

 

A nervous laugh escaped me as I pressed my lips against his, the only other sounds in the basement being Gabriel whooping rather inelegantly, a high contrast to the regal archangel he had embodied only minutes before. “I’m gonna be an uncle!”

 

I pulled away from Dean as I suddenly remembered my sister was still in the room. She had finally gotten to her feet and was simply looking at the pool of black, viscous liquid that used to be her husband. “Ellen, are you alright?”

 

She looked at me, tears shining in her eyes as she smiled. “It’s gone. The bond, it’s broken now. I’m … I’m free.” She pulled me in close for a hug and I returned it fiercely, relief washing over both of us. Despite the worry and the pain, it was the best possible outcome for both of us. Ellen was free from Devin, free to move out and make a life of her own now. And I … well, I had an Alpha and a Beta who loved me and cared for me like no other, and in return they’d given me something I hadn’t even been sure I wanted at the time, something that now warmed my heart to know was coming. All in all, despite the fact that I would have never seen something like this coming only a couple of months before, I wouldn’t have given it up for the world now. It was everything I wanted, everything I needed. I was … complete.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we go, the last chapter. :) I hope the previous chapter didn't throw you for too much of a loop. Just wrapping some things up here. Thank you so much for everyone that has been reading this whole crazy story, and everyone that has encouraged me in writing it. I love you all!

Dean and Cas smoothed things over with the local PD, making things easier for Ellen in the long run. After all, who was going to argue against two supposed CIA agents? Nobody, that’s who. As to the black fluid leaking out of the body, it was chalked up a rare reaction to severe substance abuse and carted away for cremation. They had to call in a few favours to make sure there were no complications, but if anyone had connections it was Dean Winchester. The most protest that was put up when the body itself was carted out, but all that came from it was raised eyebrows and low whistles.

 

Ellen also packed a bag for herself and asked if we could swing by our parent’s house on the way back to the hotel. She’d had a driver’s license but Devin hadn’t allowed her to drive in years and so it had expired. Dean was accommodating and told her to take whatever she needed for the night, otherwise hovering around me when the cops weren’t wanting to ask him questions. He had gone full protective Alpha, and Castiel helped when he could, standing beside me when Dean was needed and keeping an eye on everything. Just as usual, he was the glue that held us all together, and I leaned on both of them as I was still reeling from the night’s revelations. My brother-in-law had been a Leviathan this whole time, my other brother-in-law was the only thing on earth able to permanently kill Leviathans, and somehow even more shocking than all of that … I was pregnant. I had no symptoms yet, and obviously it was far too early to show, but I subconsciously wrapped my arms around my stomach, protective of the little spark of life that was growing inside. It was so strange … I didn’t even _feel_ pregnant yet, but despite that I was. I trusted Castiel at his word, I knew he wouldn’t just say something like that if it wasn’t true. It was just still so hard to believe.

 

By the time we dropped Ellen off at our parent’s house and drove back to the hotel, the sun had already risen. “You know, I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry as fuck.”

 

Despite the fact that I had been up all night, the adrenaline still pumping through me assured that I wasn’t about to fall asleep anytime soon. “That Perkins is 24 hours, ya know.”

 

He flashed me that signature smile of his. “Well, it’s a little earlier than I’d thought, but I could go for pancakes.”

 

And so we did. Even Cas had a small stack of basic buttermilk while Dean stuck to strawberry and I went with blueberry banana. It was a surprisingly light-hearted meal, despite what had transpired over the past several hours, but if anything it was a nice end cap to the whole debacle. Ultimately, despite the scare, everything had turned out well, and we would be leaving Menomonie even better than we left it. That was a definite win in my book. “So, Cas …” I started as I speared a piece of pancake, the question suddenly coming to mind. “Earlier, when we were at my parents house, we were drinking beer. If you knew I was pregnant, why didn’t you stop me?”

 

A sly smile alighted on the angel’s face. “I’d already seen the beer in the fridge and I … may or may not have removed the alcohol from it.”

 

I couldn’t help the chuckle at his response. Of course, I had only had a couple of beers so I hadn’t been expecting a buzz, but I can only imagine how my parents would react if they started drinking some and didn’t get drunk at all. Oh well. As always, Cas was looking out for me even when I didn’t know he was. My heart warmed as I regarded the sweet Beta sitting across from me. Of all the people in the world, 

 

Dean was still in full-on protective mode in the restaurant, sitting close to me and carefully eyeing anyone who approached us. When we finally got back to the motel, he was all over me, kissing me as he asked, “You still up for working off a meal?”

 

I smiled against his lips before I replied, “Of course.”

 

We both took off our jackets in sync with each other, and I heard Castiel doing the same from the doorway where he’d come in last, locking it behind him. Dean and I parted only long enough to pull our shirts off and then he pulled me close to him, my skin feeling like it _vibrated_ as it smoothed against his own. I felt fingers on my back, fiddling with my bra, though I wasn’t sure if it was Dean or Cas. Either way, I didn’t care as my bra loosened and I let it fall off of my arms to the floor. I felt a bare chest press against my back and lips start tracing patterns on my neck and shoulder. I moaned and leaned back against Cas and Dean took that opportunity to flick open the button on my jeans and pull them down, taking them off along with my shoes.

 

He quirked an eyebrow as he remarked, “Wearing panties _now_ are we?”

 

I halfway chuckled as I responded, “I just go without at night.”

 

“Fine with me,” he replied, leaning forward to tease me with his tongue on the outside of the cotton. I moaned louder and leaned more against Castiel and the angel supported me well, wrapping his arms around me as his teeth grazed the base of my neck. Dean slipped a couple of fingers past my underwear and started gently stroking, making me buck my hips in response and start to leak slick. He didn’t waste time as he slipped both fingers inside me and I shuddered in response, both wanting him to continue and also wanting something a little more satisfying than that.

 

Dean wasn’t up for much teasing at the moment. Later on, when we were back at the bunker, he would tease me until I thought I was losing my mind, but for now, after the scare and the news we just had, he simply wanted me. And I couldn’t say I objected to that.

 

In one smooth movement, he’d removed his own pants and shoes and was pulling me up on the bed. I heard the rustle of clothing behind us and knew that Castiel was likely doing the same, and sure enough I felt him at my back. I straddled Dean, teasing both of us as I dripped slick down his thick Alpha cock. He moaned as he said, “C’mon, Tara, enough teasing. I need you.”

 

And I obliged, guiding him inside me and slowly lowering my hips until they connected with his. Fuck, it still felt a little tight, but it wasn’t near as badly intense as our first time. I slowly ground my hips against him as I felt Castiel kiss and lick and bite at different sensitive spots on my back and neck and shoulders, humping against me here and there. Dean lazily rolled his hips up against mine, his need to go fast and hard not set in yet, and truth be told neither was mine. We all simply wanted to enjoy this moment as it was, but the way I was gushing slick made me think we could push it a little farther.

 

Leaning back slightly, I implored the angel, “Cas? You wanna join Dean?”

 

The Beta hesitated before he asked, “Won’t it be too tight for me?” While he was a Beta, his cock still wasn’t small. If anyone, he was one of the larger Betas that I’d been with.

 

I smiled to put him at ease as I assured, “I can take it.”

 

Dean pulled me down close to him, kissing me before mock whispering, “My Omega being needy?”

 

I grinned. “Maybe a little.”

 

He kissed me one more time before he added, “Well, what the lady wants, the lady gets.” He still all movement between us to allow Cas the chance to line himself up. As he did, Dean peppered my face with kisses, sweet and loving and almost chaste, if not for the circumstances. I had to concentrate on breathing, as once Castiel started to push himself inside, it was just as intensely tight as it had been when I’d first taken Dean. But I had survived that pretty well, so I figured no harm no foul. Once he got settled inside me, we all had to take a moment to adjust to the tightness and the sensations that were coursing through all of us.

 

Once we were all adjusted, however, it was game on.

 

The thrusts weren’t wild, at least not at first, but just the sensation of having two men inside me was crazy, in a good way. I felt like I was riding high to feel them alternate, sliding against each other. My back arched as they kept hitting every spot just right and Dean took that chance to take one of my nipples in his mouth. I gasped as the sensation shot straight to my clit, and I ran my fingers through Dean’s hair as he fucked me from beneath. Cas’ fingers wandered over my back, searching out all those super sensitive areas that he’d found before and that he found once again. The sensations were almost overwhelming, it was so good, and I felt like I couldn’t get enough.

 

When they really started to pick up the pace, Castiel picked me up and held me against him, kissing me hard and deep as his fingers reached down to directly play with my clit. I gripped his arm hard enough to leave marks and he moaned against my mouth. I felt Dean’s hands on my hips and thighs and I knew the sight in front of him was turning him on more and more, if what I was getting through our bond was any indication. I whined and keened as the angel kept up the pressure on my clit while his lips wandered down my neck. Dean was breathing hard, his head falling back on the pillow as his eyes closed. Between the emotions passed between us and the frenetic pace that he was reaching, it wouldn’t be too long before he was ready to let go, but he wanted to hold off just for a moment yet. He squeezed his eyes shut as he concentrated, moaning along with all three of us as the pace became ruthless, hard and fast and everything that I’d wanted and needed, especially after the night I’d had.

 

Dean gulped hard as he gasped, “Cas, I’m not gonna last much longer.”

 

Castiel purred as he replied, “Neither is Tara. Come, Dean, come inside our Omega.”

 

That was it, that was all Dean could take as he slammed into me twice more before his knot caught and he buried himself in me. Since Dean had given his warning, Cas had slipped out just a hair’s breadth before and he finished against my ass. Between Dean’s knot and Cas’ insistent attention that he’d given my clit, my orgasm overtook me with a roar. I leaned against the angel behind me, completely boneless as I worked through the aftershocks, Dean gently grinding against me as I did. Castiel held me gently until I had worked through the most intense phase before dropping me gently to Dean. After fetching a towel to clean up as best as he could, he joined us on the bed and the two men kept me close in between them, our breathing slowly returning to normal as we simply basked in the afterglow of the much needed sex.

 

———

 

A couple of days later, we left Menomonie, but we returned only a few weeks after that. Even though I couldn’t legally marry Dean - since he was considered officially dead - and Cas didn’t even have proper identification to put down for a marriage certificate because _angel_ , we acquiesced to a ceremony, mostly for my family. Eileen had done the same thing with Sam and Gabriel, and it wasn’t a huge deal to me, so we all just went along with it. Eileen was just starting to show, finally, and she was excited to show off her bump. I wasn’t anywhere close to showing yet, and thankfully while I’d had a little morning sickness, it was bearable so far.

 

It was just a simple ceremony, out by the lake, with Dean and Cas and I writing our own vows and speaking from the heart. Even my typically unemotional mother was moved to tears as we pronounced our love for each other before we were symbolically married via a hand fasting ceremony, a common place happening for triad relationships. It was beautiful and moving and everything I could have ever wanted for a wedding, even if it wasn’t technically legal. I had two men who cared deeply for me, and there wasn’t a thing else that I could possibly want.

 

Well, maybe one, but that was to come.

 

———

 

“C’mon, Tara, push!” Dean implored, holding my hand even as I gripped him probably more tightly than was comfortable. Castiel was on my other side, wiping my brow with a cool washcloth and holding my other hand. I was incredibly grateful I’d decided to get an epidural, but it was starting to wear off and I was exhausted. I was nearing 24 hours that I’d been in labour, and I only just started to crown. But, fuck, I was so close, I couldn’t stop now and I bore down as the next contraction came over me. “That’s it, that’s a good girl,” Dean purred in my ear, giving me encouragement at every step of the way.

 

I could really tell that the epidural was wearing off as I could feel that burning ring of fire that had been described by many a mother who went without pain relief. _So close, so close!_ At least I had made it through transition without the worst of it, the end was now so near that I felt like sobbing every time I went to push and the baby didn’t come.

 

“It’s alright,” Cas whispered soothingly into my other ear. “You’re doing so well, you can do it.”

 

I gritted my teeth as I pushed once, twice, three more times and the head finally worked itself out. I paused only for a moment so the doctor could slip the cord from around the baby’s neck before I was directed to push again, and with a quick pop the baby slipped out, crying before they were even handed to me.

 

My arms trembled as I took a look at my child’s face for the first time, everything in the world seeming like it slowed down. I gently shushed and the crying slowly ceased, little hands and fingers searching for purchase in this brand new world.

 

“So what do we got?” Dean asked, and it was only then that I thought to check. We hadn’t wanted to know beforehand and medical staff had respected our decision, remaining completely gender neutral this whole time, even if they knew.

 

I took a quick look between the legs and sure enough, it was exactly what I had been expecting. “It’s a boy!”

 

Dean laughed with joy, tears pooling in his eyes. “A boy? I have a son?” Castiel rounded the bed and embraced the man, and Dean clapped him on the back several times before he finally let him go. “We have a son, Cas, a son!”

 

Castiel was grinning wildly, Dean and I were crying, and the doctor and nurses simply let us be, simply doing what was needed with delivering the placenta and then clamping the cord, letting Dean and Castiel cut it together. They only separated the baby and me for a quick moment, to clean him up further and then weigh him and do everything else that they needed to do, putting on a tiny diaper and a hat before they handed him back to me for skin-to-skin. Finally, after everyone left to give us some quiet bonding time, I turned to my Alpha and Beta and asked, “So what do we want to name him?”

 

Dean bit his lip, and Castiel asked him, “Did you want to name him after your father?”

 

The Alpha shook his head. “No. No, this kid deserves a new legacy. I don’t want to burden him with a family name to live up to.” He bent down close to sneak a peek at his new son’s sleeping face and smiled. “What about David?”

 

That had been one of the names we had tossed around. We had come up with a few for both boys and girls, just in case, though I had always firmly believed the little Winchester was a boy. We still hadn’t wanted to ruin the surprise, though, so we’d waited until the birth to find out. I smiled as I looked between my husbands and my son. “I like that. I think it suits him.”

 

We ended up going with David Logan Winchester, because Dean wanted to squeeze in a comic book reference somewhere, and that was the most sane and un-obvious choice that wouldn’t burden the poor kid with a lifetime of teasing. A couple of hours after he was born, the rest of our small group showed up, Sam grinning wildly as he embraced his brother. Gabriel stepped into the room behind Eileen, who was carrying their new daughter, Charlotte. It felt like everything had finally come full circle, and everything that I had feared had been completely eased. I was now fully immersed in my new life, a life I wouldn’t take any other way, and while there were still some rough moments here and there - and undoubtedly ahead - it was exactly what I wanted, what I hadn’t even known I needed. A full on family, complete with significant others and now a baby. Everything was just … perfect. Or, as close as one could get to perfect in this world. And that was more than good enough for me.


End file.
